Trash Collectors Help Fight Crime

WM's Waste Watch® Program Honored; Rumpke Efforts Help Uncover Meth Lab

In addition to every day efforts helping make the environment cleaner and healthier, many solid waste companies assist law enforcement agencies and help make communities safer. Solid waste professionals are uniquely qualified to help, because of the geographic reach and presence of drivers in the communities they serve. Because solid waste drivers are working at times when neighborhood and business crimes often occur, they are in an ideal position to spot and report these situations.

They often provide additional “eyes and ears” for neighborhood watch efforts. In a growing number of communities, Waste Management (WM) has established a program called Waste Watch® where its drivers are being trained to identify and report emergencies and suspicious activity along their collection routes. WM's drivers have reported accidents, fires, suspected criminal activity and unusual situations before they ordinarily would have been detected. The Waste Watch program has trained and certified more than 2,500 drivers to be on the lookout and report suspicious activities in neighborhoods they serve.

The program is national in scope but relies on relationships that are created locally. In a community that WM services, Waste Watch training teams meet with drivers at regularly scheduled weekly safety meetings. Typically these meetings are held well before sunrise before the drivers leave the yards to start their day. Local law enforcement representatives attend to support and reinforce the program. At these meetings, employees learn how to properly identify and report suspicious, illegal or dangerous situations as they travel their routes. The object is to train WM drivers to recognize and report situations to their dispatcher, who will then relay the information to the appropriate local authorities.

In 2008, the National Sheriffs' Association recognized this WM program with one of its Neighborhood Watch Awards.

Many other solid waste companies have similar programs. Rumpke, a large privately-owned waste and recycling company based in Ohio, also has been recognized for its assistance of law enforcement personel. Their drivers have performed tasks big and small, from assisting the elderly, helping locate evidence that has been discarded and helping identify a drug lab. Deputy sheriffs in Franklin and Pickaway counties trained Rumpke workers to identify garbage common to methamphetamine labs. "If all of a sudden you see at one stop an inordinate amount of milk jugs, Sudafed blister packs or small baggies, you know something's not right," said Larry Stone, Rumpke's director of security. Authorities busted a meth lab in Jackson County recently, with Rumpke workers helping to collect evidence, Stone said.

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