Describes the work done by sanitation workers and their role in the functioning of the community.

Sanitation workers aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty in order to keep their communities clean. Readers discover the hard work that goes into a career as a sanitation worker through informative text and fun fact boxes. A graphic organizer is also included to provide additional facts about sanitation workers and the important tasks they perform. Full-color photographs allow readers to see what a workday is like for a sanitation worker. How can recycling prepare you for a career as a sanitation worker? Readers will be eager to find out!

Do your readers know what a sanitation worker does? Beginning readers will learn about this job while examining color photographs that reinforce the simple text.

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, is that someone? And why is he—or she—so unknown? In Picking Up, the anthropologist Robin Nagle introduces us to the men and women of New York City's Department of Sanitation and makes clear why this small army of uniformed workers is the most important labor force on the streets. Seeking to understand every aspect of the Department's mission, Nagle accompanied crews on their routes, questioned supervisors and commissioners, and listened to story after story about blizzards, hazardous wastes, and the insults of everyday New Yorkers. But the more time she spent with the DSNY, the more Nagle realized that observing wasn't quite enough—so she joined the force herself. Driving the hulking trucks, she obtained an insider's perspective on the complex kinships, arcane rules, and obscure lingo unique to the realm of sanitation workers. Nagle chronicles New York City's four-hundred-year struggle with trash, and traces the city's waste-management efforts from a time when filth overwhelmed the streets to the far more rigorous practices of today, when the Big Apple is as clean as it's ever been. Throughout, Nagle reveals the many unexpected ways in which sanitation workers stand between our seemingly well-ordered lives and the sea of refuse that would otherwise overwhelm us. In the process, she changes the way we understand cities—and ourselves within them.

Packed with on-target guidance and confidence-building practice, this practical guide has helped thousands of applicants qualify for secure, high-paying sanitation jobs. Now totally revised to match the latest test formats, it features five full-length sample written exams with explanations, physical exam information, and more.

Describes a sanitation worker's typical day of refuse collection and disposal, and provides a brief history of how the profession has changed since ancient Roman times.

Follows a team of sanitation workers throughout their day as they use their truck to collect trash around the neighborhood.