The Van Wert County Courthouse

Thursday, Mar. 28, 2024

Time to thank local trash haulers

To the Editor:

We often take for granted the very things that most deserve our gratitude.” (Cynthia Ozick).

I would like to give a huge salute to some unsung heroes in our country and around the world that are helping us get through the COVID-19 crisis that I feel we have possibly taken for granted. 

Here in northwest Ohio the temperatures are rising. As the temperatures rise even more as we approach summer, the garbage will start stinking. 

My wife and I rent a duplex apartment back behind Vancrest. The Vancrest Care Home trash dumpsters are just a few yards from our apartment, which makes it very convenient when I need to take our trash out! At least twice a week, the trash trucks come and empty all five of the dumpsters at Vancrest. But since the COVID-19 came to our state and the “stay at home” policy has been implemented, this thought occurred to me a few days ago. What if the trash men quit coming? What if all the garbage collectors and recycle truck drivers and workers quit?

I want all of us to stop and think what our country would become in just one month if every single sanitation worker in America stopped working.

Stop and think today what your street, yard, neighborhood, town, and city would be like in just one month. What would it be like you had no one to pick up your trash, or if you had nowhere to take your trash? Think of the smell. Think of the roaches. Think of the mice and rats. And along with them comes their feces. Not to mention the maggots that would be born, which grow up to be filthy flies!

The accumulation from mice and rat feces spreads bacteria, contaminates food sources, and triggers allergic reactions in people. Once the fecal matter dries, it can be hazardous to those who breathe it in. Moreover, rodent droppings can spread diseases and viruses.

If our dear sanitation workers and garbage collectors did not work the second month … then the third month, people might start throwing their trash in your yard. What if residents would start getting so frightened and angry they would just drive out somewhere on a road or highway and dump their trash. Think what our streams, rivers, lakes, and oceans would become filled with if all the sanitation workers in the U.S. were not doing their dirty job every day! Our country could literally be destroyed from trash. 

Think about all the hazardous waste our hospitals, clinics, and care facilities have to dispose of that are contaminated with bacteria and virus!

What if no one was willing to pick this contaminated stuff up?

So, the next time your garbage man or women swings by your place as he or she does faithfully every week, thank them! When you see the trash truck or recycle truck coming to pick up your trash, please thank the drivers and their helpers!

It’s a dangerous, filthy job, and yet they do it! They put their lives on the line every day to help keep us alive!

God bless them!
Jim Burns, Pastor
Liberty Baptist Church
Van Wert 
via email

POSTED: 04/06/20 at 7:54 pm. FILED UNDER: Letters to the Editor