Weighing In

Okay, so I said I wouldn't give you all of the details about the landfill, but I lied. I found some great pictures and thought I'd start sharing them from time to time. Y'all need to know this!

First lesson in Landfill 101 is the scalehouse. Remember me blogging about the truck who blew out two tires the first day? It happened on the scales.

All kinds of trucks come in every day to bring various items to the landfill. Some actually go into the landfill here, others go into the transfer station for eventual transportation to the Screaming Eagle landfill, which accepts a lot more stuff. (At our landfill, we only accept yard waste, construction/demolition debris and brown goods, aka furniture type waste. More on actual landfills later.)

The trucks drive onto the giant scales, which are housed "in the driveway" for lack of a better explanation. See the rails that guide them? When a trucks runs into those, that's when the tires explode. And trust me, if you're right by the scales and not ready for it, it will scare the @#$%& outta you!


Anyway, we get everything from huge trash trucks to residents pulling trailers, and everyone has to go over the scale to weigh their debris. That's how we know how much to charge them.

For residents, we just estimate the weight of their vehicle and subtract it to get the approximate weight of their load. For trucks that come in on a regular basis, i.e. Waste Management, they are issued a sticker with a number, and we have their "empty weight" on file.

Still others ride over the scales full, get a weight, dump their stuff and come back over for an empty weight.
There is always one person working inside the scalehouse, which is part of the administration building, where my office is located. We have the two very nice ladies who alternate days in the scalehouse, Cat and Linda. They have the patience of somebody I don't have and must have it to work with some of the folks who come over the scales. Just as we women may lie on the scales, some people also try to qualify for the resident rate - FREE - when their load is obviously not from a residence.

I found out something interesting about the scales as we started our office weight loss contest this week. The scales are only accurate to 20 lbs. For instance, if you weigh 300 lbs., the scales could weigh you at 300, 280 or 320. So it wouldn't be good to use for the weight loss contest.

Feel like you learned anything?

Coming this weekend - maybe - pictures of my new office, which is tres cool!