Sometimes, the most common sights, no matter how important they are, go almost unnoticed, because there is no way for an individual to experience their absence. Those people, the street cleaners, who step onto the streets before any of us get out of bed - to make the streets that we take to go to school, university, or work, clean, pleasant, and, most importantly, bearable - go unnoticed on most occasions, despite the bright fluorescent green and orange jackets that they wear. Within our mundane daily schedules, they occupy no more than a couple of minutes of our train of thought as we hurry into our workplaces, yet their service is what makes a city livable.
While we enthusiastically indulge in festive seasons - the Sinhala and Tamil New Year that just passed, or the upcoming Vesak and Poson seasons’ with their dansals and pandals, and the carnivals that will be invading the city in no time - these people, the street cleaners, will undoubtedly be more burdened, with a heavier garbage trolley to push, more polythene wrappers to collect, and larger bulks of trash to be carried away by tractors.
The Daily Morning sought to dig into the unseen lives of the street cleaners, while also bringing to the reader the story of what happens to the trash once you throw it into the trash can. This is their story, as well as the story of your trash.
Street sweeping snr. citizen Nayidu Natarasa talks of his daily burden made up of tree-lined leaf-riddled paths and life under the sun’s harsh glare
First, we met street sweeper Nayidu Natarasa, 72, while he was having a small rest after a tiresome work schedule at the Wijerama junction in Colombo 7. Since there is no better window into their world than themselves, we asked him about his daily schedule and how he finds the job.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
What time do you report to work?
At 5.30 a.m. I start work. We have an office nearby. We go there to collect the cart and tools - (points to the garbage cart on the side), ekel brooms, mammotys, bins - everything is kept there. We sign the register at the office and then report to work. I am in charge of cleaning from Wijerama Junction to the entrance of the BMICH.
What exactly are you supposed to do?
I sweep this block till the BMICH entrance, collect the trash and empty it into the bins near the office. My colleagues working there take away the trash from there. My job is a little hard because there are many trees along the path, as you can see, and also the floor is not made with concrete blocks. I have swept those concrete block floors as well, and it is quite easy to clean. You can easily sweep off the trash on them. But here, it is made of tar. There are cracks too. The grass grows back stubbornly even after you weed it out. You have to continuously weed it. You are lucky if you get an easier block to clean. I started at 6 a.m., and it’s 9 a.m. now. This is how far I have completed (he points to the area that he has cleaned). The person who cleans the other side of the road, just in front of the Meteorology Department, has already finished and left. We are paid equally without considering the difference in effort. We work in shifts. At night, someone else will be taking care of this same block. Cleaning at night is also easy because there is no sun. Since I am quite old now, it is a little difficult for me to work in the harsh sun. Hence, I work slowly, but I somehow manage to finish my job. People might think that these roads are occupied by decent people and that it is always a pleasant experience for us to clean them. Actually, most of the time, it is. They are very pleasant and very nice and treat us with respect, but there are those who do not. For instance (pointing to a tree), people often urinate behind that tree, which is in the block that I am supposed to clean, and it is very smelly around there. It is hard to clean with that harsh smell. They don’t have the basic courtesy not to make a street that thousands go across unbearable. The supervisor comes to see whether we are doing the job properly. You don’t know when he would come. In the morning, he comes twice or thrice; in the evening, they also come once. We also take little breaks when it gets tiring. There are people who used to give us food whenever possible back then. But now, everyone is struggling. Very rarely do we receive food from them now.
But, as you say, if you are permanently assigned to this street, how is it possible to take leave?
It is fine to take leave. There are streets that are not much used or where people do not go about as much. But Wijerama junction has a relatively large number of people passing through. Hence, if I have to take a leave, someone who cleans those other small streets will be recruited. The street gets cleaned anyway. Yet, we very rarely take any leave.
How did you get this job? Who recruited you? How much are you paid?
I got it through Abans. They answered the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) tenders. We are employed by Abans, and for each of us, the Company receives some amount of money. We don’t know the amount the CMC pays. We receive Rs. 1,850 a day. Under the NPP Government, they were given an increase. When I came to the job, the payment for the day was Rs. 1,200; now, it is Rs. 1,850. Earlier, I was a painter. I fell off a scaffolding and now my leg is injured. Hence, I can’t go back to that job. Then I chose this. I clean very slowly because it is quite difficult with my leg. Every day, my leg gets swollen by the end of the day, and I have to apply some oil and massage it so that I can work the next day. I boil the neem flowers with water and extract the oil. Otherwise, there would be a separate cost for the oil to apply daily as well. This job is my family now. I have friends here. I stay around even after the job. I will either go to the office or hang around here on the streets. I don’t even mind sleeping on the streets as well. Only when it gets darker do I go home. By then, the other person takes charge of the street.
Garbage tractor operator Thilina Madushan expounds about the lack of public cooperation in the form of haphazard dumping and un-segregated waste.
In order to see what happens to the trash that is taken away from the streets and houses, we reached out to another street cleaner. He is Thilina Madushan, and it has been two years since he came to this job. He operates a tractor across the streets and is familiar with the process until the trash ultimately turns into dust.
Following are excerpts of the interview:
We see garbage trucks and tractors go past the towns, and we haven’t seen any separation of trash in them. Does all the trash go into the tractor together as mixed trash?
No. When people give us their trash in bags, within that bag they have separated the trash according to its composition. Polythene is in one bag, leftovers in one, and beer cans or glass in one. When we take the bag into the tractor, we empty them into the containers that we have inside the tractor. There are exceptions as well. There are various types of polythene and plastic as well. On some plastic bottles, there is a line; on some, there is a dot. That helps us understanding into which container that belongs. The bottle that contains those yogurt drinks is not even plastic. Shopping bags, biscuit wrappers, the bags we call tulip bags - these are all different and have to be separated.
What happens to the trash after collecting it from the whole town?
We bring it into the yard and empty it into containers separately. Then, we press the degradable trash into a mold as much as possible and make piles of trash out of them. They look like boxes of trash when done. Then, they are left to dry. We need to water these piles of trash from time to time so that it makes it easier for them to degrade. We water them whenever we want to, this is not the ideal way. We are told that we will be receiving machines in the future that say when exactly to water and how much water a pile needs. This takes a few days, and after a continuous cycle of watering and drying, we break down those piles using a fork. This partially degraded trash is made into piles again using the molds, and this is done several times. When it comes to the final pile, it is almost a powder. Finally, using a machine, we powder it further, and this is sold by the Government as fertiliser.
What happens to the rest of the trash that does not digest?
The polythene we send to a factory in Puttalam. They use it to recycle trash and make other products. The rest, including beer cans, glass, and electrical devices, we sell to waste collectors who buy broken stuff and plastic. They can buy them at a very low price, so they buy them all. Also, we were shown how those machines work. The gas that comes out of burning polythene is very toxic, we were told in a workshop. They showed us how in these factories, polythene is burned without letting the gas out.
If the trash is handled until it is almost dust, how come there are still garbage dumps?
One reason is that people don’t cooperate. They don’t separate their trash when they give it to us. Also, there might be other practical reasons, such as the higher population and the amount of garbage received per day. For instance, in these festival seasons, two or three times the normal amount of trash accumulates.
How do you make sure the trash from everywhere is collected?
The tractor goes only on the main roads and 50 metres into the roads near the main roads. Anyone can give their trash by coming to the place where the tractor stops. Every day we go to the same place at the same time, so they can bring their trash. Some people just leave their trash on the road without giving it to us.
How many days do you have to work?
We report to work at 6 a.m. Then, we clean the roads, and at around 10 a.m., we start collecting trash. Until 3 p.m., we operate the tractor across the streets. On Fridays, we end trash-related work at around 11.30 a.m. But after that, we engage in watering plants, weeding, and such activities. It is mandatory for us to work at least 26 days a month. We have days off on Saturdays and on some public holidays. Even during the New Year period, we have to work until 13 April, and we start work again on 16 April. By the time we come back, there are four days' worth of trash. Sometimes, we have to handle four to five loads of trash during these festive periods. Even on normal days, there are times we have to handle more than one load.
What do you find most difficult about the job?
We are used to the smell now. The first few days was hard, but now, I don’t feel it anymore. On rainy days, the smell gets worse. Some people don’t give their trash to the tractor on the day itself because of the rain. Then, the leftover food gets spoiled, and we still have to separate it into the bins. During a little break, we have lunch or tea. Sometimes, I find it hard to eat after tackling spoiled food all day. Used sanitary napkins cause a few problems too. They wrap these used napkins in paper or polythene. We are misled into thinking its paper, and we send them to the place that we send paper, and then we are reported for not having done the job properly. There are some who just leave their trash on the road in trash bags without waiting for us to come; some even throw the bag out of the car while driving. Sometimes, people put everything into one bag and give it to us. We find it really hard to separate because it is not just one or two bags that we receive at a time. Some even add dried leaves from the yard into the trash can. Now, since both are degradable, they could add them into one bin, but we still have to separate it. If people could be a little more helpful, this is actually a job that I do with satisfaction. For some of these issues, we can complain to the Public Health Inspector (PHI). For instance, for keeping trash for days, they can impose fines, but, on most occasions, they are only advised. In all my time on this job, I haven’t seen a single instance where someone was fined.
What do you think about the job?
I am doing a job like anyone else would. What differs here is that if we do not report to work, the town will become a place that no one can live in. Even though we can’t smell it now, you might know how smelly a garbage tractor is. How would it be if this garbage were left uncollected for a few days? We make the town a livable place, and that is what I love most about this job. True, it is hard, but, without us, the towns would be rotting.
The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the interviewees, and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication