Video of the Week!

Can you believe it? Another week has already come and gone, and it's time once again for the video of the week!

This week's video highlights a Wittke Starlight front end loader on a Freightliner Condor cab and chassis, powering through a very wet and windy garbage day in Bremerton, WA. As you can see, this particular truck has been outfitted with a "carry can" and cart tipper, allowing this front load truck to collect smaller residential containers, as is seen in the video.

A "Carry Can" Sits on the Forks of a Front Load Refuse Truck to Allow for Residential Collection

A "carry can" is small dumpster-like container that can be mounted to the forks of a front load garbage truck to allow for the manual loading of residential waste. These "carry cans" can also be outfitted with a cart tipper, which allows 64- and 96-gallon trash carts to be mechanically emptied into the "carry can". "Carry cans" have been around since at least the 1980's and were very popular in southern California up until the advent of fully automated waste collection. The "carry can" system continues to be the method of choice for waste collection in many communities here in the Pacific Northwest where tight roads and alleys, inclement weather, and abundant trees and other obstacles make fully automated collection impractical.

With this little bit of back history in mind, check out this weeks video below, featuring the aforementioned "carry can" system:

Freightliner Condor with a Wittke Starlight body, equipped with a "Carry Can"

I hope you all have enjoyed this weeks video! Thanks for stopping by!

Video of the Week!

It has come to my attention that it has been well over a year since I did anything with this blog, and I've decided to remedy that! To get thins rolling again, I've decided to start off with a new Video of the Week!

Residential Garbage is Manually Loaded into a McNeilus Standard Rear Loader

This week's video features a McNeilus Standard rear-loader on an International 4900 cab and chassis, collecting a mix of residential and commercial garbage in a beautiful waterfront neighborhood on Bainbridge Island, WA. With its small 20-yard body on a single-axle chassis, this little truck is able to easily navigate the narrow streets and tight driveways of this quiet, wooded neighborhood. The low hopper sill helps keep the manual loading of residential garbage easy on the operator, while the 3-cubic-yard hopper capacity and equipped kick bar make this truck ideally suited for small commercial dumpsters as well!

Check out the video below!

McNeilus Standard Rear Loader on an International 4900 Chassis

Video of the Week!

It's time again for this weeks garbage truck video!

McNeilus AutoReach body on an Autocar ACX chassis

Today's video features the newest addition to the local Waste Management yard's fleet! It is an Autocar ACX with a McNeilus AutoReach automated side load body. This truck was originally purchased for the Portland, OR yard, however, this truck saw very little action down there. Soon after its purchase, the Portland yard converted it's fleet to trucks running on Compressed Natural Gas (CNG). As a result, my local yard was able to pick up this truck nearly brand new. The McNeilus AutoReach is really a fun truck to watch, and I hope you guys enjoy the video! Also, I apologize for the audio. Pretty much all you can hear is wind. Right as I began filming, a strong summer thunderstorm rolled in, and kicked up quite the dirt storm! Made for quite the backdrop for the video, but unfortunately, the audio suffered as a result! But don't worry, there will be plenty more video of this truck to come! Enjoy!

More Photos at http://www.flickr.com/deathmetal22/

You can learn more about the AutoReach and other McNeilus Refuse Trucks at: http://www.mcneiluscompanies.com/Refuse/refuse.html

You can learn more about the Autocar ACX cab & chassis at: http://www.autocartruck.com/refuse/ACX.aspx

As always, thanks for reading and take care!

-Bryn

Two Major Milestones Today!

Today is a very big day for me in it's own sort of way.

Six years ago today, I started my YouTube channel. What started out with a simple, shaky video of my neighborhood garbage trucks has now lead me down a six year long journey to places I never would have imagined! Along the way I've met some great people, made some close friends, and have had the opportunity to progress from those first shaky, low-quality videos to the professional quality videos that I work hard to put together today. I've had a lot of support along the way, for which I can't even begin to convey just how thankful I truly am.

Another milestone was reached for me today, as well. Here on this sixth anniversary of my humble beginnings in this online waste industry community, I have also published my 300th video on YouTube! Over the course of those 300 videos, I've progressed from filming the garbage collection on my own street, to filming trucks in other parts of my city. From there, I began traveling to other nearby cities within an hour or so of my hometown to film and photograph their methods of waste collection. Ultimately, I've ended up traveling through three states, from the northern areas of Washington, down through the endless sea of pine trees of Oregon, and to within a couple miles of the Mexican border in California, all in pursuit of filming and photographing the wide array of unique garbage trucks that this world has to offer. And I've only really just scratched the surface. I look forward to spending many more years being an active member of this community and producing hundreds more videos to share with others who share with me this unique interest.

So to celebrate these two milestones, let's take a look back at the very first garbage truck video I ever filmed (mind you, it was actually the fourth video I uploaded to YouTube, but it's my very first, oldest footage) and then of course take a look at my 300th video, uploaded today! Enjoy!

My Very First Garbage Truck Video, Filmed In Early/Mid 2008

Upload #300! My Most Recent Video, Filmed in May of 2014

Thanks again for all of the support everyone! I look forward to seeing what the next six years and next 300 videos have to bring!

-Bryn

Local Garbage Hauler Converting It's Fleet To Clean-Burning Natural Gas

First and foremost, I would like to apologize for going several months without updating this blog. I know I've kind of neglected it, but it's been a rather hectic few months for me personally. But now that things have settled back down, it's time to kick this thing back in gear again, and what better way to start off than with this...

Yesterday, Friday July 11, 2014, I had the honor and privilege of being able to attend a ribbon cutting ceremony held by local, family-owned garbage hauler Basin Disposal of Pasco, WA to unveil their new garbage trucks that run on clean-burning Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as well as the accompanying on-site CNG fueling station.

Darrick Dietrich, owner of Basin Disposal, cuts the ribbon at yesterday's ceremony.
Behind him are the company's new CNG-fueled garbage trucks.

At the ceremony, Basin Disposal unveiled their very first, brand new, recently delivered CNG trucks - four residential garbage trucks, and two container delivery trucks. The company currently runs a fleet of over 70 trucks, and plans to replace the entire fleet, currently fueled by diesel, to CNG-powered trucks over the next few years. The switch to CNG provides many benefits, not only to Basin Disposal, but also to the public. CNG burns cleaner than diesel which reduces pollution caused by exhaust emissions. CNG prices are also lower and more stable than diesel prices, as CNG is a domestic fuel, not influenced by activity in the Middle East and other oil-producing countries. This means that customers can expect more stable garbage service rates well into the future. Another benefit is that CNG engines run significantly quieter than diesel engines. In fact, even when running at high RPM's, CNG engines aren't much louder than your personal car. No more being woken up before dawn by the garbage truck!

One of four of Basin Disposal's new CNG-powered residential garbage trucks.
It features a Heil DuraPack 7000 garbage collection body on a Peterbilt 320 cab and chassis,
powered by a Cummins natural gas engine.

Also at yesterday's ceremony, Basin Disposal unveiled their new on-site CNG fueling station, built by TruStar Energy, and fueled by Cascade Natural Gas. The system features TruStar Energy's portable gas compressors, which connect directly to a special gas line run directly to Basin Disposal's site by Cascade Natural Gas. Each compressor can fuel up to eight trucks. Using the portable compressors rather than a traditional brick-and-mortar fueling station allows for easy expansion of the fueling station as the company's natural gas fueling needs grow, and also allows for compressors to be transferred between the company's different locations as needed. Basin Disposal is the first company in Eastern Washington to adopt a CNG-powered fleet and the first company in Eastern Washington to operate a CNG fueling station. This is huge not only for Basin Disposal, but also for the Tri-Cities community, and the whole of Eastern Washington. The company also has plans to open a public quick-fill CNG fueling station at their site for other fleets as well as personal vehicles powered by CNG to fuel up, which should help to encourage others in this region to adopt CNG.

CNG fueling port. Each port has hook-ups for two CNG-powered trucks to refuel simultaneously.

It was truly amazing and I am honored to have been able to be there to watch such a great local family-owned company that's always been such an active part of this community make this huge step forward for this region, and to help pave the way for others in this community to take the same steps.

For more pictures from yesterday's ceremony, and of course of the new trucks, as well as some other trucks from Basin Disposal's fleet, click here!

As always, thanks for reading, and take care!

-Bryn

Garbage Day with Snow and Ice!

A couple weeks ago, my area got hit with a late winter storm that left us with several inches of snow, and later, sleet, ice, and slush as well. I got the opportunity, just before it all melted away, to go out and document how waste collectors adapt to these conditions!

Freightliner Condor with a Wittke Starlight Front-Load body out working in the snow and ice.

Also, I decided to experiment and use my new camera to shoot video with, and if I do say so myself, the results were stunning! So here it is, enjoy this video showing how garbage trucks handle adverse winter conditions!

As always, take care, stay warm, and stay safe!

-Bryn

Video of the Week!

Friday is upon us once again, and that means it's time to share my new YouTube video for this week! This week's upload features a truck from my local Waste Management yard, a Wittke Starlight front-load body mounted on a 2003 Freightliner Condor chassis, outfitted with The Curotto-Can II for residential waste collection! This video is a bit on the long side, but I promise, it's worth watching until the end, as I tried out a whole bunch of exciting new experimental camera angles throughout the video! So be sure and let me know what you think of the new camera angles, and what you'd like to see more of! Also, I would like to throw a huge thank you out to the driver of this truck, I've known him for a very long time, and he's always gone above and beyond to be friendly and make these little garbage truck filming adventures fun! Anyways, without further ado, here is this week's Thrash 'N' Trash Productions YouTube upload! Enjoy!

Freightliner Condor chassis with a Wittke Starlight Front-Load Body.

Outfitted with The Curotto-Can II for residential waste collection.

As a final note for today, I'd like to apologize for my lack of activity on this blog over the past week, as I've been very busy with work. But, be sure and stay tuned, as I have a lot planned for this blog in the coming days, so be sure and follow!

Thanks for reading!

-Bryn