This is a blog about all things garbage trucks. Here you will find: exclusive sneak-peak photos and video clips of upcoming YouTube and Flickr uploads; recollections of some of the crazier things that have happened to me on my garbage truck adventures; tidbits of waste industry news, history, and trivia; pictures of and information about some of my custom model garbage trucks; and of course, links to my latest YouTube and Flickr uploads!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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!
It's Friday, and that means my latest YouTube video is up and public! This week's video features a Wittke Express Manual Side Loader body on a Volvo WXLL chassis. I found this truck collecting residential recycling in a quiet area of Portland, Oregon back in April of 2013. This truck has a little bit of personal history for me, as it originally came from my local yard, before being sent away to Portland back around 2006. Though this particular truck as never my neighborhood's regular route truck, it did occasionally swing by my house a few times as a help truck. So it was pretty neat for me to see a truck once again that I chased around a few times when I was a kid. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy this week's video! Next week's video features some exciting new experimental camera angles, so be sure and tune in for that!
-Bryn
Wittke Express Manual Side Loader body on a Volvo WXLL chassis
Here's a photo I snapped yesterday afternoon. This old beast is a 2003 Freightliner Condor with a Wittke Starlight front load body. This unit has been outfitted with The Curotto-Can II for automated residential waste collection. Though she may be starting to show her age, she still slams back cans and gets the route done like she did on day one!
2003 Freightliner Condor Chassis with a Wittke Starlight Front-Load Refuse Body. Outfitted with The Curotto-Can II.
Hello, and welcome to a blog dedicated to all things waste related!
Where did it all begin?
First off, I'd like to share a little history. For just about as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by garbage trucks. Odd? Perhaps. Believe it or not, it all stemmed from an irrational childhood fear. I was about 3-years-old at the time, and every Tuesday morning, as I'd hear the garbage truck drawing closer and closer to my house, I would scream and cry, and insisted that I must hide in the bathroom and that my mother had to hide with me to keep me safe from the clutches of the ever-terrifying garbage truck. Finally the day came that my mother had had enough of the weekly tantrums, and I was forced, despite my best efforts, to sit and watch the garbage truck from the safety of the living room window, in order to prove that there was nothing to fear. This was supposed to be one-time occurrence, just to prove a point, and nothing more. But, the following Tuesday, I excitedly insisted upon watching the garbage truck again. And again the next week. You get the picture. Everyone figured it was just another one of those childhood phases, that it would soon pass, and my youthful mind would become fascinated with something else. And then years passed by, and this "phase" continued. By the time I was about 6- or 7-years-old, I had befriended my neighborhood garbage man and would follow the garbage truck down my part of the street. Some of the other kids in the neighborhood and at school would pick on me as a result of this strange hobby of mine, but I never let it stop me. Though the vast majority of the people in my life have been extremely supportive of my interest in the waste business, there have of course been a fair share of naysayers as well. I have had teachers, school counselors, and the like tell me that if I continued with this obsession with garbage trucks, I would not lead a successful life. People would think I was weird, I wouldn't have friends, I wouldn't get a job, certainly no one would want to marry me, or raise a family with me, and so on, unless I "learned to grow up". Did I take their advice? Of course not. And yet here I am, 20-years-old, still as fascinated with garbage trucks as ever, in fact, I only become more and more interested in the solid waste industry as time goes on, and on top of that, I am gainfully employed, engaged to be married, and have many close friends. On top of that, I have created a very successful online brand, Thrash 'N' Trash Productions, in which I share videos and photos of garbage trucks with others who share this unique interest. Which brings us to more current times...
Classic Refuse Trucks
The one rather negative thing that this hobby brought me through most of my childhood was a feeling of emptiness; I always felt alone. I of course had plenty of friends, but I never met anyone else who found there to be anything even remotely interesting about garbage trucks. I just came to feel that I must be the only person on Earth who had such a deep fascination with these machines. But that all changed in 2007. While browsing the web after school one day, I stumble across a website called Classic Refuse Trucks, which is essentially an online museum and library dedicated to the history of waste collection. At last I knew that I was not alone in this interest! There was at least someone else like me out there. After spending many, many afternoons enthusiastically absorbing all the information the site had to offer, I noticed that there was also as online forum attached to the site. Of course, I joined immediately and discovered to my great joy, hundreds of members of all ages from all around the world, and all just as obsessed with garbage trucks as myself! It really brought on a great sense of relief to know that I was not anywhere close to being alone in this unique hobby. In addition to the forum, many of the members also posted videos of their local garbage trucks on YouTube, so in the summer of 2008, I purchased a cheap camcorder, opened up a YouTube account, and joined in!
Thrash 'N' Trash Productions
Since first creating my YouTube account nearly six years ago, I have created a unified online brand called Thrash 'N' Trash Productions which I have dedicated to documenting a vast variety of garbage trucks and other waste-related equipment through a series of professional grade, high-definition videos on YouTube, professional-grade photographs on Flickr, and more recently, a Facebook page in which other garbage truck enthusiasts of all ages can talk to me about the waste industry, ask me questions, and get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at what I do. Over the past two years, since graduating from high school, I have had the opportunity to meet several other waste industry enthusiasts, as well as getting to film and photograph garbage trucks in three different states, including Oregon and California, as well as my home state of Washington.
Watch the video above to see exactly what I do at Thrash 'N' Trash Productions!
Wasted In Washington
As I begin to grow this blog, what you can expect to see here is: exclusive sneak-peak photos and video clips of upcoming YouTube and Flickr uploads; recollections of some of the crazier things that have happened to me on my garbage truck adventures; tidbits of waste industry news, history, and trivia; pictures of and information about some of my custom model garbage trucks; and of course, links to my latest YouTube and Flickr uploads!
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog, and welcome aboard!
