Nelson Molina was a garbage collector for more than 30 years.
He’s rescued over 50,000 treasures discarded as trash along the way.
In fact, his Manhattan-based stash, which he calls a museum, is filled with everything
from toys to guitars to windows, typewriters, and more.
If he hadn’t kept them, they’d sit in a landfill; to Molina, the choice was clear.
From random odds and ends to items expensive and rare, he has thousands on display and
continues to add more.
Let’s explore these and other surprises from the trash in this episode of The Infographics
Show, Crazy Things Garbage Collectors Have Found.
Molina’s museum is located in a Manhattan warehouse on the second story of the Department
of Sanitation.
Those who enter find themselves surrounded on every side by what others have thrown away.
He’s got a star of David made in memory of 9-11 forged from World Trade Center steel.
He’s found a vintage metal reproduction of a social security card from the 1930s.
He has Star Wars collectibles from the time of its debut, baseballs signed by the Yankee’s
best, and a book with Bette Midler’s autograph.
A Fender guitar hangs on the wall in a corner Michael Jackson-themed shrine.
He appreciates much less valuable items too.
He’s rescued stained glass windows from a church and even a carved wood chair dampened
by rain.
Holidays were always especially busy.
These are the times when older items are thrown out to make room for things shiny and new.
As a result, rows and rows of color-coordinated Furbies rest along the shelves.
Action figures big, medium, and small are piled on a table’s surface.
Toys of every kind imaginable have a place among his displays.
A child’s dream-come-true is sitting in his warehouse and was discovered bit by bit
in the city’s trash.
To Molina it’s a sad testament to how many things others could enjoy that New Yorkers
just throw away.
He hopes that those who visit will not only marvel at what he’s found but stop to think
about what they should reuse, give away, or recycle.
Jose Gutierrez is also a trash collector whose discoveries of thousands of thrown out books
have earned him his own claim to fame.
He is known as Colombia’s Lord of the Books, a title that his job as a garbage man made
possible.
This is because over 20 years ago he brought home his first book and has continued to save
the literature he has encountered since.
The ground floor of Gutierrez’s home is now a community library with his finds stacked
wall to wall.
Three rooms are devoted to nothing but books, 25,000 of them at least, and continue to build
up more.
Most books are in good condition, discarded in containers separate from the rest of the
trash.
Gutierrez has found his treasures on routes all around Bogota city.
He knows that the richer northern regions are where the rare editions and hardcover
versions can be found.
He also knows that the paperbacks are often tossed in the trash of the south.
All are useful in helping the children of his community learn how to read and hopefully
end its history of poverty.
This dream has become a reality only because of the many books he has rescued from others’
trash.
Craig Randall is also a garbage truck driver who sees more in what others dismiss as trash.
His fiancé was less than thrilled on the times he brought home an old sewing machine
or some books, but when he showed her a Wendy’s contest sticker it was a completely different
matter.
Randall’s good fortune all began when he spotted the Wendy’s cup in the back of his
truck.
He had won a chicken sandwich from a similar cup the week before, so he decided to try
his luck once more.
He took off the sticker with the hope of scoring some fries.
What he found could buy him fries for years.
Randall was shocked to read that he had won a staggering $200,000, though he didn’t
quite believe it at first.
In fact, he tossed the cup but fortunately kept the sticker.
It was his sister who mailed it in to confirm that it was real.
It was.
He hired legal help and despite finding the sticker in the trash, he was able to claim
the check.
Randall, a garbage truck driver who had long dreamed of owning a place of his own, planned
to buy a new home on the Cape.
In contrast to the others, Peoria Disposal Company driver Gerald Cummings was used to
finding little to be excited about in the garbage.
One day, however, he saw a black square that turned out to be a wallet.
The wallet had cash and cards inside.
Cummings called the office which contacted the police, and its owner was happily found.
To this day it remains a mystery how the wallet ended up intact in the trash but his owner
has kept it as a memento.
He now forgoes wallets entirely, choosing to keep items in his pocket instead.
Garbage collector Anthony Jones made a similar discovery to become another person’s hero.
It wouldn’t have happened if the arm of his truck had not malfunctioned.
When it did, the trash it held fell to the ground and Jones began to pick it up.
He stopped when he saw envelopes of cash among the mess.
An honest man, he returned the $8,500.
The owner rewarded him with enough to treat himself to the biggest steak he could find,
and both were quite thankful that his truck didn’t work right that day.
While not of any monetary value, another important discovery was made in the garbage of our government.
Randy Hopkins, an ex-con employed as a Washington, D.C. sanitation worker, was quite surprised
to find the President of the United States itinerary among the trash.
The papers held countless details of President Bush’s plans for travel to the state of
Florida.
This included information such as arrival and departure times as well as who would be
aboard Air Force One, Marine One, and their accompanying choppers during the flight.
Further, it gave a play by play of the Presidents entire day and the order of the motorcade
that would be used to get there.
While the document could be dangerous in the wrong hands, the Secret Service denied responsibility
for the mistake.
They claimed it was an unclassified White House document.
However, classified or not, most would agree it had no place in the trash.
Believe it or not, while someone in the White House obviously made a mistake, far worse
has happened in the past.
Security for President Cheney, for example, once left his protection details behind in
a shop.
President Bill Clinton’s staff took off at one point, leaving the man with the nuclear
codes behind.
So, while a White House employee clearly forgot to use the burn bag for sensitive documents,
in the scheme of things, worse mistakes have been made.
In addition to these finds, some collection crews have had the misfortune to come upon
some much more unpleasant things.
Among these are monster sized rats and even deceased livestock such as cows or pigs.
At times cats and dogs have been discovered, many cold and hungry, thrown out intentionally
with the rest of the trash.
And, sometimes, as a New York garbage man can confirm, they may even stumble upon a
human leg.
Yet others have discovered upon entire bodies.
Sometimes these are victims of murder, as was the case in a landfill where a sanitation
worker came upon a body piece by piece.
The local sheriff claimed he had never seen anything quite like it.
More than likely the sanitation worker hadn’t either.
It was an event that neither will likely forget.
Dumpsters are also sometimes the place where some die for one reason or another.
Afterwards, they may be unintentionally picked up.
In Wichita, Kansas, for example, a man was found in a bakery dumpster.
An autopsy concluded that he died of natural causes, though no one could figure out what
brought him to such an unusual place.
Other times, more traumatizing still, the act of collection itself may prove fatal.
In some cases, those in the dumpster may be knocked to the ground and run over by the
truck.
In others some may die of shock as they are lifted in the air.
The situations that occur most frequently are when garbage men tragically compact people
along with the trash.
In these cases, they may not find the body until they arrive back at the dump.
One man beat all odds and was compacted many times but lived, using a shopping cart as
a defense.
However, his legs were broken and because of an infection, part of his right leg was
later removed.
However, unlike others less fortunate, he had survived.
If fact, the sibling of a man who had suffocated in the back of a truck ended up suing the
waste-management company for indifference to homeless lives.
The investigation revealed that as many as six others had died in the state within years.
However, testimony showed that the garbage truck drivers were not indifferent as alleged,
nor were they unaware.
In fact, they had begun to shake the dumpsters at pickup to wake those sleeping inside.
Unfortunately, such measures must not have been practiced widely enough.
While the job of a garbage collector can be exciting and at other times sad, it can be
downright dangerous as well.
It is all too often that collectors find pieces of drug labs in the trash.
One sanitation worker in Evansville, Indiana was forced to call for help as noxious smells
and smoke escaped from i his truck.
The cause was traced to smoldering pieces of what remained of not one meth lab, but
two.
Incredibly, it was the second time this happened on the same block within a week.
Fortunately, in this case it was caught in time.
In other instances, equipment has caught fire in the back of a truck.
The reason this happens a lot in some areas is that for each pound of meth produced approximately
five pounds of hazardous wastes are made.
Combustibles used for meth production include things such as muriatic acid, Coleman fuel,
and acetone.
These with the combination of heat or fire could turn deadly for those driving to a landfill.
Fortunately, trash removal employees have had a chance to combat this problem by helping
authorities identify those to blame.
In Memphis, Tennessee, as many as 31 labs were found after workers noticed a smoking
bag in their truck.
Experts at their route, they could trace it to where it had come.
Police were then able to survey the residence and obtain a warrant to search it.
The two female occupants were arrested, protecting future garbage collectors from the hazards
of their illicit crimes.
While many realize that the job of a garbage collector is a hard one, many do not realize
that it can sometimes bring quite a reward.
Other times it entails a gruesome discovery or, with garbage on fire, can be hazardous
to a collector’s health.
In the United States, the average salary most earn is $40,000.
Is that enough?
Is it too much?
Also, be sure
to check out our other video called This Is Why You're Fat Thanks for watching, and, as
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