Garbage Collectors on the Grossest Stuff They’ve Ever Found

A version of this piece originally appeared on VICE Netherlands.

Remember your parents telling you to do your homework or else you’ll end up being a rubbish collector? Well, whether they were right or not, it turns out that it is - unsurprisingly - a tough, often thankless job. But garbage collectors are also truly essential to society. Want proof? Just look up what happened the last time they went on strike wherever you live.

I dropped by the municipal yard just around the corner of my place in Amsterdam to ask garbage collectors about the grossest things they've seen on the job. Turns out, people throw away all sorts of disgusting and random things without even thinking.

“The grossest things I've ever come across were bags filled with shit. A toilet must have broken down somewhere and someone thought they’d solve the problem by tossing their shit in a bag and putting it in a container. People quite literally don’t give a shit about you, or anyone actually.

A colleague of mine once found a fishbowl with fish still in it. He took it with him and we kept it in our canteen for a while. Eventually, the fish were released into a pond. But that's nothing compared to the baby who was found in an underground waste container not so long ago. Absolute madness.” – Richard Willems, 57.

“The grossest thing I've ever come across on the job was a rotting sheep's head. People had called the police because a container smelled like death. My team helped to inspect that container. We thought that there would be a corpse in it, but it turned out to be a sheep’s head, totally rotten, filthy, decomposed and full of maggots. That was extremely gross.

Fortunately, fun things happen too. For example, one day during the Amsterdam Light Festival, we found a mannequin. We decided to tie it to a bridge to see if people would notice that our piece of art was not part of the festival. It took about six weeks for the mannequin to disappear – it was blown away during a storm. Apparently we were no less convincing than the other artists and I was actually quite proud of that.” – Kevin, 25, only shared his first name for privacy reasons.

“Once, I had to look for two knives in a dumpster during a heat wave. A crime had been committed and witnesses stated that the offenders had thrown their knives into it. I was appointed to do the job because I was in the area.

I had to spread out the contents of the warm dumpster onto the street and search through it while the detectives were staring at me, plugging their noses. That meant sifting through worn underwear, diapers, dog shit, sanitary pads, maggots, combs full of hair and so on. It was very disgusting, but there was also something to it. I found both knives and it felt a bit like a childhood dream come true: I helped solve a crime.” – Rudolf Vorstermans, 29