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Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City

Robin Nagle

3.92 · Rating details · 476 ratings · 106 reviews

America's largest city generates garbage in torrents—11,000 tons from households each day on average. But New Yorkers don't give it much attention. They leave their trash on the curb or drop it in a litter basket, and promptly forget about it. And why not? On a schedule so regular you could almost set your watch by it, someone always comes to take it away.

But who, exactly, ...more

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Hardcover, 304 pages

Published March 19th 2013 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux

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May 18, 2014 B Schrodinger rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, microhistory

Robin Nagle's Picking Up, is one of those great little micro-history, author immersion books that is guaranteed to be an insightful and fascinating read. Indeed it is one those books to take to work and read at lunchtime. It soon sorts out the interesting people from the dullards. "You're reading a book about rubbish?" from which the only reply is "Shouldn't you be watching How I met Your Mother or something?"

If you have ever looked up and down your street while taking out the garbage and done s ...more

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Jan 22, 2020 Anne Bogel rated it really liked it

Rounded up from 3.5 stars.

Author Robin Nagle embedded with NYC's Department of Sanitation to see what it really took to dispose of 11,000 tons of garbage a day. While a little overly detailed in places, I found this fascinating and surprising; I'll confess to constantly reading stats and insights aloud to any family members in the vicinity. And when I traveled to NYC just weeks after finishing this book, you can bet I looked at the garbage bags and city trash cans in a whole new way.

I was surp ...more

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Nov 01, 2015 Eric_W rated it it was amazing

Shelves: current-affairs, economics

Arguably the most important service a city provides is garbage removal. All city functions become virtually impossible when trash is not removed in a regular manner. Not only that, but they are key players in fueling consumption and capitalism. Without regular disposal of consumed goods, there is no room for new goods to replace them.: "used-up stuff must be thrown out for new stuff to have a place."

The euphemistic sanitation workers are the real "invisible" men. Workers are truly ignored. They Arguably the most important service a city provides is garbage removal. All city functions become virtually impossible when trash is not removed in a regular manner. Not only that, but they are key players in fueling consumption and capitalism. Without regular disposal of consumed goods, there is no room for new goods to replace them.: "used-up stuff must be thrown out for new stuff to have a place."

The euphemistic sanitation workers are the real "invisible" men. Workers are truly ignored. They can stare, whistle, remark, clatter,whatever, with impunity because as far as the general public is concerned they are part of the background noise. They are mere obstacles to be avoided. But an absolutely essential job, dwarfing most others in importance. And messy. Garbage from the trucks is taken daily to transfer stations, where “the smell hits first, grabbing the throat and punching the lungs. The cloying, sickly-sweet tang of household trash that wrinkles the nose when it wafts from the back of a collection truck is the merest suggestion of a whiff compared to the gale-force stink exuded by countless tons of garbage heaped across a transfer station floor. The body’s olfactory and peristaltic mechanisms spasm in protest. Breathing through the mouth is no help, and neither gulp nor gasp brings the salvation of fresh air; there’s none to be had.” What we have forgotten is that all of that used to be all over the streets. “ Householders no longer [have] to keep their windows clamped shut all day, even in the worst heat of the summer, against the nauseating dust that billowed from the streets. (In the rain that dust became an unctuous mud with a repulsive smell. God help the man or woman who found it adhered to shoe soles or skirt hems; the stench permeated forever anything it touched.)”

It's not an easy job and a very dangerous one, vastly outranking police and fire in fatalities. (A check on the Internet listed them as fourth highest fatality rate behind loggers, fishermen, and aircraft pilots and flight engineers of all things --another source listed them as fifth, adding steel workers ahead of them.) One horrific example involved a worker who had been on the job twenty-three years. “It was the usual pile that awaited him at this stop, one of the last on the route. He tossed a load in the hopper and was just turning away from the truck when the blade bit through a bag and broke open a jug of liquid concealed within it. The resulting geyser that hit Hanly full on was a 70 percent solution of hydrofluoric acid. His funeral, which drew nearly two thousand Sanitation people from across the city and around the region, made the television news.” Then there are objects that don’t make it into the truck. The compactor blade can do strange things when it hits solid objects.

“ Bolts, nails and screws, plastic bottles, cans, shoes, food debris, mattress springs, wood fragments, glass shards, become lethal projectiles. Workers tell routine stories of getting hit in the chest, head, back, arms, and legs. One man I worked with on Staten Island reminisced about the time someone had thrown away a bowling ball. When he tossed it in the truck and pulled the handles, it came back at him as if shot from a cannon, caught him in the belly, and knocked him out. The driver, who thought his partner was on the back step, didn’t notice that the fellow was missing until he’d turned the corner. When the driver went back to look for him, it took a while to find his unconscious body because he’d fallen into the tall grass by the side of the road.”

The section on mechanical sweepers -- the drivers are called broomies -- had fascinating detail. The dials and readouts in the broomie’s cab rival that of a small airplane and learning just how much water to add, the angle of the brooms, and maintenance require vast experience. The annual celebration in Times Square that apparently involves enormous quantities of cut-up paper and other colorful detritus takes hours to clean up in the wee hours of the morning and incurs wrath when it’s not done on time. But sometimes, nature makes it difficult. Rain and snow for example. “The mechanical brooms were churning the wet litter into a thick soup dyed pink by the metallic red cards that had long since disintegrated into the mash. It looked like oatmeal made with Pepto-Bismol. Mechanical brooms don’t do oatmeal. Workers with hand tools moved it into the gutters, but then the brooms trundled past and sprayed it back onto the sidewalks. The hand sweepers and blowers pushed it into the gutters once more; the brooms splattered it back. All over Times Square, mechanical brooms and sanitation workers were having the same exchanges of pink spray. Our boots and pant legs and jacket hems started to look like Jackson Pollock had been experimenting with them as canvases. The equipment wasn’t up to the conditions, but short of a large sump pump I’m not sure what would have worked.”

And all that is not even to mention snow removal, that bane of all mayors, which has caused more political defeats than sex scandals. It can be an almost impossible job when snow is falling at the rate of two-three inches per hour and the wind is blowing, maneuvering around stuck cars and with unrealistic citizen expectations. The drivers often have to work forty or more hours straight and conditions can conspire to make their jobs miserable.

A fascinating look into an essential job that few appreciate and most are reluctant to pay for having long forgotten the alternative.
...more

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Nov 02, 2015 Jeanette rated it liked it

Good survey of garbage service in NYC, mostly Manhattan. Ok non-fiction, but I wanted far more output information upon garbage separation and/or end placements, and far less union in-fighting politics and admins politico histories. Some of the chapters were excellent, and others not at all. But then I am a difficult audience for this and especially for a place that doesn't require much, if any, hidden alley pickup. Far more difficult and dangerous than that which is on a full frontage street sit Good survey of garbage service in NYC, mostly Manhattan. Ok non-fiction, but I wanted far more output information upon garbage separation and/or end placements, and far less union in-fighting politics and admins politico histories. Some of the chapters were excellent, and others not at all. But then I am a difficult audience for this and especially for a place that doesn't require much, if any, hidden alley pickup. Far more difficult and dangerous than that which is on a full frontage street site. Because my Dad was a Chicago Streets and Sans. for 30 years- there were physical aspects not fully divulged here. It was his second career; not begun until he was nearly 40. Yes, he did it until 70 years of age, as well. And even at the end he was never the team piker.

Having witness this after the 2005 White Sox ticker tape, I must say that the clean up brigade after parades and ticker tape events should have gotten as much copy as snow patrol/ salt trucks. Chicago does this in a movement that is quite like a ballet. I'm not kidding. It is coordinated with 20 to 30 machines across and cop presence to keep people out of entire blocks while it is done. All in one movement. In one hour places that we had ticker tape at the end of LaSalle up past our ankle bones and covering our entire feet. There was nary a piece of paper left. One hour. I could not believe my eyes. So glad we went for a drink and saw that.

Garbage men have the most dangerous jobs in the city. All kinds of critter bites and dogs are the least of it. And they are assaulted from high rise by falling objects. And they see so much. The smell in summer is bad but it is not close to the worst. They all have tales. And also good ones of friendships along the routes.

It's interesting, just not the bigger story. It doesn't tell how much of the "good" stuff is kept by the crew either. Entire building size depots for future giveaways either. My Mom kept two at a grade school and at a storage garage. Shoes, clothes, furniture, appliances, all kinds of stuff recycled to other owners. She had an entire two rooms at her school just for kids' coats, gloves, boots for those coming in/out from Mexico without any winter layers.

Now there are places in burbs or rural with one man and lifts. Must admit, in two states, I still always chat with the garbage man. VERY knowledgeable! ...more

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May 17, 2013 Mikey B. rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-society, journalism, new-york-city

A look at the garbage (or should I now say “sanitation”) workers of New York City. The author did work for some time in the sanitation department –picking up garbage and driving the street sweeping trucks. Plus she did winter work as in driving plow trucks during a snow storm; surprisingly, to me, snow removal falls under the sanitation department in New York.

The book provides us with a history of sanitation removal in New York. For example, if one romances the days of horse and buggy this did l ...more

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Aug 01, 2013 Margaret Sankey rated it really liked it

The most dangerous job in NYC isn't cop or firefighter, it's the garbage men. Nagle, an anthropologist, was embedded for two years in the never ending War on Trash (and rats), and delivers a truly fascinating inside study of the workings and history of the vital, disgusting and high risk world of trash pickup, waste management and snow removal that keeps big cities livable. She highlights the byzantine interlockings of two unions and the city bureaucracy, the gender stresses of adding women to t ...more

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Mar 02, 2018 Edward Sullivan rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthroplogy, u-s-history, adult-nonfiction, culture, labor, new-york-city

In this fascinating chronicle, anthropologist Robin Nagle introduces readers to the men and women of New York City's Department of Sanitation and explains how this remarkably small army of uniformed workers is the most important labor force on the streets. For her research, Nagle accompanied crews on their routes, interviewed supervisors and commissioners, and listened to collection crews tell stories about blizzards, hazardous wastes, and other on-the-job experiences. Nagle joins the department ...more

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Aug 24, 2019 E rated it it was amazing

Shelves: geekery, library

Fascinating urban anthropology. Gave me a lot to think about, with city infrastructure, the things I take for granted as a city dweller... good look at history. And fascinating to see an anthropologist who parlayed her fascination with the cultural context of trash and what a society gives up or throws away, into learning about NYC's sanitation work and culture, that facet of the city's infrastructure. I learned a lot about everything from routine trash pickup to snow preparedness. Yes, there ar ...more

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Dec 15, 2019 Rissie rated it it was amazing

“You collect garbage, that doesn’t mean you are garbage. What you do is important. What you do matters. What you do is difficult and dangerous and absolutely fundamental to the well-being of this city. Never mind if the public ignores you or even scorns you. Look at what you’ve given your families; look at the children you’re raising, the homes you can provide for them. take pride in your job. ... Be proud.”

"If you're lucky you can go your whole life without ever having to call a cop. And you ca ...more

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May 30, 2013 David Dinaburg rated it really liked it

Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City sets a new standard in approachability for non-fiction. The clunkiest sentence in the whole book is the subtitle; the typical phrasing is refreshingly—almost defiantly—colloquial, and sanitation department idioms are ubiquitous enough to necessitate a comprehensive glossary of terms. The anecdotes and facts swirl together so casually that it’s hard to remember you’re reading an anthropologist's study an Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City sets a new standard in approachability for non-fiction. The clunkiest sentence in the whole book is the subtitle; the typical phrasing is refreshingly—almost defiantly—colloquial, and sanitation department idioms are ubiquitous enough to necessitate a comprehensive glossary of terms. The anecdotes and facts swirl together so casually that it’s hard to remember you’re reading an anthropologist's study and not spending a night catching up with an old classmate. It begins with a rather potent assertion—that city sanitation is the most important civic infrastructure—and relentlessly supports it without ever being preachy, dry, or pedantic:

Effective garbage collection and street cleaning are primary necessities if urban dwellers are to be safe from the pernicious effects of their own detritus. When garbage lingers too long on streets, vermin thrive, disease spreads, and city life becomes dangerous in ways not common in the developed world for more than a century. It is thus an especially puzzling irony that the first line of defense in any city’s ability to ensure the basic health and well-being of its citizenry is so persistently unseen, but the problem is hardly unique to New York.

From the perspective of a garbage-producing resident of Manhattan’s district 8, Picking Up felt intimate; New York lacks the garbage-minded alleyways of modern planned cities like Chicago, so mountains of black trashbags are cyclic curbside landmarks sprouting and fading daily.

Living in New York is not requisite to appreciate the research or be entranced by the history as it presented:

From the earliest European settlement, garbage was tossed along the shoreline, first with casual disregard but soon with deliberate intention of building land. Eventually, the port’s slips were so filled with garbage that ships couldn’t berth. In 1857, the state ordered dumping moved farther into the harbor. Debris floated ashore in New Jersey. The dumping zone was moved again, in 1872, to an area off southeastern Staten Island. The foul loads killed what had been profitable fishing grounds and oyster beds, and trash that didn’t sink still found its way to shore—exactly as increasingly irate citizens in New Jersey and Staten Island had predicted.

“Contact with bodies of dead animals and decayed vegetables has been so frequent at the most accessible beaches,” fumed an irate swimmer, “that many fastidious persons have long abandoned the practice of bathing in the surf at Coney Island, Rockaway, and the neighboring resorts. Certainly it is not pleasant while swimming to be borne down upon the floating body of a dead horse, or to have the carcass of a cat strike the bather in the face while diving beneath a breaker.”

Excerpted from the July 1892 Harper’s Weekly, this scene anathema is simply anathema to a modern reader. It is nearly comical in its putrescence. One must work to consciously accept that it is real and not some sort of understated Victorian hyperbole.

Picking Up balances modern stories and historical background; the author is an anthropologist as well as a neophyte sanitation worker. Readers see the standard employment application process unfold, seasoned with academic research. Both collide with bureaucratic stonewalling; the prize, hundreds of years of New York’s Department of Sanitation’s archives, interviews with current employees, acceptance into the professional community that collects New York’s trash. There is true passion here, which makes what could be a tedious subject matter enthralling. Picking Up is the type of narrative that immerses itself fully in a subject for no reason besides a desire to inform. There’s no judgment, not overt proselytizing, simply experiences presented in a relatable manner:

The most unpredictable poisons come from the trash itself. Pressure from the hopper blade often pops the bags and hurls their contents. Pulverized Christmas tree ornaments and Christmas tree needles, lightbulb fragments, construction dust, house paint, barely coagulated cooking oil, urine-soaked kitty litter—to draw from a long list of examples—become ammunition. Powdered substances are especially unsettling. One morning we dropped an innocuous-looking bag into the hopper, and when it ruptured under the blade’s pressure, a cloud of dark green powder billowed forth. It was disturbed again by every load we sent up. We didn’t know what it might be, but its smell was slightly chemical, and we were certain it was something we didn’t want to inhale. It brought to mind a story I’d heard from a foreman with a decade and a half on the job who was nearly asphyxiated by a lungful of soot he inhaled from a burst bag. When he turned to run, frantic for air, his partner caught him in the gut with a well-placed punched, a kind of Heimlich-maneuver-on-the-fly, that knocked him down—and that gave him back his wind.

The writing is approachable and fun, the stories are interesting and sometimes shocking, and the scope is unique; the world of trash, “so persistently unseen,” requires a deft hand to bring into view. ...more

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Sep 17, 2018 Yunis Esa rated it really liked it

A mix of history, anthropology, and personal journey. Robin Nagle ambitious project on painting a glimpse on one of most important task force, maybe the most important, in the best city in America.

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Sep 24, 2020 Elizabeth Desole rated it really liked it

A fascinating look at the little known or understood world of waste removal. It’s a nice basic overview of the entire system. There’s a little history, a little explanation of the logistics of waste removal in America’s largest city, a little of the culture of the organization itself. The only reason I only gave 4 stars is that I was hoping for more about the internal culture. It’s rare that anyone is motivated enough to get behind “the green wall” of the DSNY. And not enough was done with that ...more

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Sep 27, 2019 Noah rated it it was ok

reading this for class and the writing is incredibly grating

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Aug 22, 2020 Ellen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: reportage, anthropology

If you sometimes wonder where all that refuse goes, this is *not* the book you're looking for. This first-hand account of the sanitation profession was written by a cultural anthropologist, and deals with its social and cultural aspects. But there's plenty of food for thought, as well as rippin' good tales. It's an armchair visit to the streets of New York City. ...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Patrick rated it really liked it

Shelves: anthropology, non-fiction

This is a surprisingly readable account of a remarkable world- remarkable for the subculture revealed (as only an anthropologist could), but as well for the fact that it surrounds us but is completely unknown. For those who doubt the existence of caste in America, here is evidence of a group of people who are not simply untouchable, they are invisible. Hagle reveals this world to us, and makes a plea for a more sympathetic attitude to the people providing this essential service.

Along the way, s ...more

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May 06, 2013 Jeramey rated it liked it

Shelves: urbanism

I was hoping for this book to be either more technical (why certain things are done certain ways, advantages, disadvantages, etc, etc) or more thorough (following the garbage from the curb to the landfill or employees for full days/weeks/etc). Instead it glanced at the people and the job, but didn't deliver the depth I wanted.

It was interesting, but at the same time I never felt quite the connection I was expecting. There weren't any real characters from which to really gain insight into the peo ...more

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Feb 12, 2020 Amy Rohn rated it really liked it

3.5 rounded up.

This book is a fascinating look at an essential job that not too many people stop to think about, but that keeps their lives running smoothly. If you live in New York City you'll find this book particularly interesting, but even if you don't this is still an interesting look at one of the most important aspects of our society. This one also took me a lot longer to get through than most other books I read. I've found that with nonfiction, I have to focus a lot more to grasp everyth ...more

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Aug 14, 2019 Daniel rated it really liked it

I was excited to read this book. And it did not disappoint. My favorite chapters were the ones that talked about the history of NYC garbage collection. I was surprised to learn that NYC used to throw its garbage in the ocean. And empty its chamber pots in rivers. I makes me glad to live at this time.
I was also surprised to learn that some NYC garbage were ashamed to be garbage men. One man has not told his neighbors what he does for a living. Me personally I think being a garbage man is a hono ...more

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Jul 25, 2014 E rated it liked it

Perfectly serviceable memoir of this lady's time with the DSNY. Short and breezy. I would have preferred a little more information about the trash itself. She talks about the people picking it up, and all that goes into that process, but little about what happens to the trash afterward. Chapters about hierarchy and union politics were less than thrilling. History was good but could have been more.

And she didn't address the question that pops into my mind every time I see a trashman--how do they ...more

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Feb 22, 2016 Sandra rated it liked it

Shelves: social-history

3 1/2 stars. The story of the Department of Sanitation in NY and it's workers, sort of. Parts explain the workings of the DSNY and it's mandate. Other parts are devoted to the people that work there. The language can be quite florid, particularly considering the subject matter, which can be jarring at times.

If you are interesting in seeing government bureaucracy in microcosm, this is a wonderful read. ...more

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May 02, 2020 Diana rated it really liked it

Shelves: set-in-nyc, 2020

I have a pretty big interest in NYC but even I wondered if a whole book about its sanitation workers would be interesting. I was amazed that it was! Earned an extra star for making garbage collection and snow removal so interesting! I look forward to annoying my companions with tidbits learned here the next time we visit.

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Aug 27, 2015 Alison Wade rated it really liked it

Everyone - but especially New Yorkers - should read this book! It will give you a whole new appreciation for sanitation workers. NYC often feels like a pile of hot garbage but without these men and women we would be living in squalor.

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Nov 29, 2019 Tim Popko rated it really liked it

The New York Times has done a lot of promotion for Robin Nagle. Her name and her book are plugged in regularly by Times reporters, often in musings about the derision of working-class culture.

Picking Up is written as a scholarly treatise that teeters on beauty. In her opening prelude, Robin writes, "Imagine if we were capable of a form of empathy that lets us know one another by savoring the aura on the things we have touched. We would go to a dump and get drunk on one another's souls." p. 8. It The New York Times has done a lot of promotion for Robin Nagle. Her name and her book are plugged in regularly by Times reporters, often in musings about the derision of working-class culture.

Picking Up is written as a scholarly treatise that teeters on beauty. In her opening prelude, Robin writes, "Imagine if we were capable of a form of empathy that lets us know one another by savoring the aura on the things we have touched. We would go to a dump and get drunk on one another's souls." p. 8. It's parts like these where Picking Up flourishes, and gives the reader a warm embrace of city sanitation workers that ventures into a larger discussions on the human condition. It's a well-referenced book of in-field anthropology, with meanderings into urban history, metaphysics, sociology, and feminist reporting. For that reason, there certainly is something for everyone in this book, and for me it was the hard, resounding smack of disrespect sanitation workers feel throughout their lives. Never had I read that perspective in more articulate terms, and I soothed some of my own wounds by reading this book. Picking Up is more erudite than I would recommend to the general public, but for those willing to slog through a fair-sized tome on this subject, I promise it will conjure the same gushy feelings I did. Yes, I write this as a man who has cleaned garbage and swept streets, and I'm glad I did.

Robin's perspective as an in-field cultural anthropologist is fraught with some weaknesses. Like many of her subjects, I was never convinced that she had an affinity for garbage growing up as a child. Her assertion that garbagemen are the most valuable workers in the city is also somewhat patronizing. I never expect her to say, "okay, I'll give up the game. You guys are losers", but she clearly has a way of relating to the workers that is more scientist than advocate, and certainly more feminist than "one of the guys". Whereas a cultural anthropologist could be at liberty to reflect poorly on her subjects at times, she overcame a clammed-shut bureaucracy to write this story and can't double-cross them now. For that reason, while Robin remains steadfast in her unrelenting respect and advocacy for sanitation workers, there are times when even she looks at their culture as backward and misogynist, and barbs the workers at opportune times.

For a work of on-site, eyes and ears anthropology, Robin leaves glaring holes about how her gender and outsider status did in fact change her subjects' behavior. In particular, her joy ride and late return with a senior Bronx worker would not have been tolerated normally. Her time soaking a passerby woman with a hose by accident would have horrendous results elsewhere. And her discomfort at a foreman cursing, or seeing a poster of a nude woman, ("Her crotch was as bald as a baby's. Here was an obviously mature human female adult who lacked a secondary sex characteristic basic to normal human female development. I had never seen anything like it." p. 82 - SERIOUSLY?) are elitist and reek of anti-male shaming. Although she does take on the work herself and interacts with a number of workers, her anecdotes and stories are mainly derived from the low-hanging fruit; what was said at membership meetings, union politics, and city news outlets. For that reason, it may be hard to see her as transcending her honorary role as "anthropologist-in-residence" into a more endearing and personable face within the membership.

Picking Up offers many possibilities for elevating the social status of sanitation workers, and covers the successes achieved by Mierle Laderman Ukeles and union leadership in years past. Robin carries in this tradition and imbues the reader with a strong appreciation for the workers, promoting their livelihoods and even gives deference to their monstrous bureaucracy. She writes of the heavy data-driven efficiency that underpins operations day in and day out, and makes it known that the work of managing workers, supervising routes, and snow removal are not simple tasks. Readers who dispute sanitation workers' unionism in general may think twice after reading of the deaths, injuries, and deep disrespect they face everyday. These are relatable topics, and Robin does a terrific job expounding on these issues. ...more

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Sep 25, 2020 Joseph Hirsch rated it really liked it

Many people would be surprised (maybe even shocked) to learn that being a sanitation worker in New York City is more dangerous than being a policeman or a firefighter. I certainly didn't know as much before reading this book. And yet, despite the near-heroic work done by sanitation engineers, when a young and idealistic kid talks about the kind of job he might want to do when he grows up, something like firefighter or policeman tends to make the list right after a gig like astronaut, while "garb ...more

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Jun 17, 2017 Sophie rated it liked it · review of another edition

Effective garbage collection and street cleaning are primary necessities if urban dwellers are to be safe from the pernicious effects of their own detritus.

"C'mon Eddie, what are you getting so upset about? It's only garbage."

"We depend on our ability to move fast, and so assume the briefest relationships with coffee cups, shopping bags, packaging of all kinds -- encumbrances we must shed quickly so that we can maintain what I call our average necessary quotidian velocity. Such velocity is conn ...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Alexis Beshara rated it it was amazing

A fantastic exposition of the thankless workings of New York City's Sanitation Workers, without whom the city would quite literally drown in their own waste. This should be a required reading of every NYC resident.

Chock full of historical context, insights into changing political climates that have affected the DSNY, and personal anecdotes of the workers themselves (including the author), Picking Up paints a picture of sanitation workers both in NYC and around the world that offers a more empath ...more

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Aug 13, 2020 Yiannis Psaroudis rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: on-deck, non-fiction, nyc

In _Picking Up: On the Streets & Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of NYC_, author-cum-anthropologist-in-residence Robin Nagle provides a behind-the-scenes look into arguably the country's, if not the world's, most complex and vital sanitation department. And, like any good anthropologist, that means more than just relaying first-hand accounts; Nagle actually suited up and became a sanitation worker, herself—passing all the requisite tests and requirements—in an effort to give us an ...more

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May 26, 2017 GinnyP rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, environment, new-york-city

Just the right combination of facts, anecdotes, how-to’s, and history to be interesting. The author interviews, then applies and is accepted as a sanitation worker. They can make $80,000/yr ! But after reading of the dangers, and terrible hours and schedules, I’d say they deserve more than the $35K most people might say is enough. (80 seems hefty, but it is NYC). Politics plays some part, but the chapters stay short and easy to manage, without drifting off topic. The only slow part was at the en ...more

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Jan 27, 2018 Kara rated it really liked it

Anthropology professor Robin Nagle grew up fascinated by the Sanitation system. As an adult, she researched its history and ultimately ended up joining the force to get the best in-depth perspective. Her recounting of this experience, and her related research, makes this book a really interesting read.

The book taught me many things I hadn’t considered and many things to appreciate about the Sanitation system. It also raised good points about class and hierarchy and our society.

The history of st ...more

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Nov 05, 2019 Phillip rated it it was amazing

To most of us, Sanitation Department workers go unnoticed as our trash and garbage seemingly disappear magically. All we see is the tip of the iceberg. Robin Nagle literally dives in and uncovers an unexpectedly interesting and engaging story with real people and real stories. She's been there and done that as both an anthropologist and sanitation worker. If you give it a read, you'll gain a world of respect for these mostly unseen but necessary worker-bees in our beehive society. I enjoyed the ...more

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About Robin Nagle

Robin Nagle

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“Garbage Is, always. We will die, civilization will crumble, life as we know it will cease to exist, but trash will endure, and there it was on the street, our ceaselessly erected, ceaselessly broken cenotaphs to ephemera and disconnection and unquenchable want.” — 3 likes

“Imagine if we were capable of a form of empathy that lets us know one another by savoring the aura we leave on the things we have touched. We would go to a dump to get drunk on one another's souls.” — 1 likes

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Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City

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