Now on video

During the interview for this issue’s cover story, “Going into collections,” Miller Scrap & Disposal Chief Financial Officer Jeremy Miller shared a heartwarming anecdote that has stuck with me.

While discussing his company’s commitment to exceeding customer service expectations, Jeremy took a moment to speak on how his company’s drivers have been known to go above and beyond for their customers.

“Just a small example that happened a couple of weeks ago: We had a customer that was feeling under the weather and forgot to put their garbage cart out,” Jeremy shared. “One of our drivers noticed the cart wasn’t out and went up to his driveway and pulled it and dumped it. [The customer] happened to have some sort of camera, and he captured that and posted it on social media, and it kind of blew up. It was a pretty cool thing.”

We’ve all been there—that moment of realization that we forgot to take the waste or recycling cart to the curb—and that makes it easy to understand why the kindness of such a small gesture went viral.

I appreciate how the latest generation of surveillance technology provides a glimpse into the generosity of those who work in collections—and, sometimes, a glimpse into their bravery.

In a recent memorable example from my town of Columbus, Ohio, a camera mounted on a collection truck operated by Local Waste Services Ltd. captured footage of an explosion that came close to seriously injuring the collection workers on the truck.

As a worker was emptying carts along his normal route in a residential area, a fireball blew out of the back of the truck, scattering waste in the roadway and starting a fire inside the truck, The Columbus Dispatch reports.

The explosion occurred within seconds of the disposal of an oxygen tank, which is considered household hazardous waste. The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act makes it illegal to dispose of these tanks inside a normal waste collection cart.

The workers reacted quickly, jumping out of harm’s way and grabbing a fire extinguisher to dampen the flames. Luckily, both workers were unscathed.

And now collection workers can add oxygen tanks to a growing list of items, such as lithium-ion batteries, to keep an eye out for along their routes.