Life in the Time of Coronavirus
The Waste Collector Who Is Cleaning up as You Shelter in Place
A new series about how this pandemic affects our lives, our loved ones, our work, and our way of life
Life in the Time of Coronavirus is a new GEN series where we are interviewing people across the country who have had their lives upended or who are experiencing the stress of the unknown.
Steven Arkle is a 46-year-old waste collector from Guelph in Ontario, Canada. After his province declared a state of emergency, he must contend with higher-than-usual trash buildup, as citizens don’t realize how dangerous their haphazardly discarded garbage can be.
In Ontario, we declared a state of emergency a few days ago; that means a lot of people were required to self-quarantine to their homes. I work for a very small waste collection company that removes garbage from condominiums and properties that aren’t properly serviced by the municipal system. Once we determined that there were going to be a lot more people staying in their homes, we saw an uptick in the amount of garbage.
I get improperly tied garbage bags, which means I get showered with people’s used tissues. If you don’t want it to affect other people, you want to…
