As you may guess by the title, yes I'm a garbage man.
I'm 23 years old from Sweden. Got a degree as a carpenter but felt it was never for me.
So I started investing in to bitcoin early 2013, and believe it or not I managed to take $5 early 2013 and turn it in to about $25,000 by the end of 2013. It was a crazy year without a doubt, all time high price and lots of other stuff going on.
Regardless that's not what I'm here to talk to you about, I'm here to talk about the everyday life of a ex-bitcoin investor turned broke that had to become a garbage man.
I wake up at about 04.45 in the morning. I smoke a cigarette and then proceed to make breakfast. Time quickly turns to 05.20 and it's time for me to leave.
My brother who works at the same place doing the same thing (almost) drives us there, as I failed in getting my license, twice, we arrive at 05.50 and in to the lunch room we go.
I load up on some Coca-cola so I get the occasional sugar rush throughout the day. My partner for the day is Anders, the worst partner you could ever get, as he's that kind of guy who won't do anything to help out. He'll sit in the car all day, smoking, drinking coffee and talking on the phone. It's been like this for years, he won't stop though he just continues with it every day.
We leave the work station at around 06.10, now I have to sort through all the keys on the big key chain, and pick out the ones we're using today. Turns out to be around 50 different keys.
First stop, it's 06.40 and I jump out, lock up the room and drag out the garbage vessel, its a 660L vessel packed over the maximum allowed line. All done, next room same thing, and the next and the next.
Suddenly it's 10.30 and finally I can eat my sandwich and drink something, take a smoke and just calm down a bit.
At 10.40 we leave, but now we are through with the keys and the rooms, now it's on to the worst thing of the day. Taking every waste bin from the houses. On this day, a monday, we have about 1000 bins divided by 500 houses more or less. This is where the real pain starts, this is where I have to walk behind the truck for the rest of the day, not allowed to drink, not allowed to eat something, and because of the stress I can't really smoke either.
I start counting, 2 here 2 there, it quickly adds up to about 200 bins. Great, only 800 left.
Time passes by, my legs start hurting, my back starts hurting, my throat is really dry and I could really use something to drink. We're at 500. At 800 I can finally get back in the truck, we are leaving and taking another area where we'll find the last 200 bins. I can drink some, take a smoke and try not to think about my feed hurting too much.
Time is now 13.10 and on we go to the last 200 bins. Anders being Anders jumps out at the first couple of bins and says "I'll take these" Fucking great I think to myself, finally I can relax a bit while he works. Wrong. He left the remainding 196 bins to me.
I jump out, almost falling off the ledge as my leg is hurting from that bin that was way overloaded fell on it earlier.
I start counting again, 2, 4, 6, 100.
Finally we are done. Finally I can rest.
It's 14.40 and I can't wait to get home so I can take a bath on ease up my muscles a bit.
Casually I ask Anders if he can drop me off, as I live on the way back to the workstation. He refuses and says something about that it's such a pain to drive that way, it will cost him 5-10minutes.
We arrive at the work station, my brother has already finished so no drive home for me. Have to call a friend who's a bit busy, but picks me up 30minutes later.
It's now 15.50 and I'm finally on my way home, to take a bath, to relax, to sleep and eat.
This is a normal day at work for me, as a garbage man, having one of the worst routes in my area.
I probably fall asleep at around 11-12 that night and wake up again at 04.40, doing the same thing, repeating the same pattern. And all for what. Some money each month that does not even make me happy enough to want to continue. But I have to, beacuse that's Society.