The garbage collector

Regardless of how long he's slept, 47-year-old Michael Speckin gets up every day at half past five to say goodbye to his 21-year-old son. Michael doesn't like to rush in the mornings, so he leaves plenty of time for coffee and a cigarette.

He feels it's important to begin the day gently. His shift doesn't begin until 7:45 a.m., but he and most of the other garbage collectors start trickling in an hour before.

A good team

They enjoy sitting down for a chat over a cup of coffee and a few cigarettes. It's a bit of a ritual for garbage collectors across Germany, explains Michael. Anyone who doesn't take part is unlikely to ever belong properly, he says.

Michael Speckin has been working for the refuse collection services in Hamburg since 1987. Until three years ago, he worked on the garbage trucks. But then he started having trouble with his back and had to undergo two operations. Now he works in the recycling yard, where he no longer needs to pick up heavy loads.

His job now is to coordinate and sort the garbage brought in by the public. There are around 12 different types of garbage containers at the yard – for everything from leaves to electronic goods, furniture and corks - so the public has no excuse not to separate their refuse.

All the staff are men. "We're a tight-knit community,"says Michael. “Our shifts are nine hours long so we know each other very well. I like the fact we're all men. We talk about things only men can talk about.”

In fact, they don't need to talk much while they work. All they need to do is see who's doing what and what still needs to be done.

Garbage shrink

“I'm always friendly to the public,” says Michael. Maybe that's why the yard is always busy. “Some people come three or four times a week and don't actually have much to drop off,” he laughs. “You can see they're mainly coming for a chat.”

Some of them like to tell him stores about what they're brought in, and why they're getting rid of it. Michael says that sometimes he feels like a shrink.

He also gets regular visits from former colleagues, or even colleagues on their day off. Anyone ‘who belongs' gets a cup of coffee. He and the other garbage men drink liters of coffee.

Michael Speckin smokes two packs of cigarettes and has about 20 cups of coffee a day. Sometimes he worries about his health, and he wishes he could stop smoking. Especially since his uncle died of lung cancer.

Michael Speckin has been working since he was 15. After he left school he began working at the dockyards. He would have preferred to train as a car mechanic or a carpenter, but he didn't get a traineeship.

Then he began earning well and decided to give up his ambitions. He's perfectly happy with his current job. "Basically it's a very secure job. The city can't fire anyone, because it's never going to go out of business, as it were,” he says. “And there'll always be garbage to sort.”

Job security

The job's lowly status doesn't bother him, and any derogatory comments people make about his job are water off his back. He insists he's proud of what he does.

After work, Michael Speckin goes straight home. He can't imagine a life without family. In fact, he's never in his life lived alone. “I don't like my wife being away,” he admits. “Then I can't sleep.”

Michael goes to the gym and works out two or three evenings a week. He spends the rest of his free time tinkering in his basement. He likes fixing broken objects for friends and acquaintances.

He also enjoys surfing the Internet and reading science fiction and westerns. His favorite writers are William Shatner and Dan Brown. He read “The da Vinci Code” in two days. “Once I get into a book then I can't put it down until I've finished it,” he says. He often stays up reading until four in the morning.

But he'll still get up to see his son off the next morning.

Author: Olga Sosnytska (jp)
Editor: Rina Goldenberg