Top Ten Messes; Mess #7
Dry Heaves
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I worked as a supervisor at a plant that processed dairy products and gelatin desserts. For a big part of my time there, I was in charge of plant sanitation. My crew had a team leader and around 10 sanitors.
In food processing, there is a striking amount of waste. You wonder why you make the effort to clean your plate when you see the large volume of waste being generated. But there are reasons why the product cannot be packaged up and given away. There is packaging, labor, utilities, and shipping cost. Some product or ingredients are out of date. Sometimes an wrong ingredient is added or the wrong amount added that would make the ingredient statement false. The product may be contaminated, or suspected of being contaminated. On and on. . .
Back at our trash dock, we would dump 55 gallon barrels of waste chip dip, sour cream, and other such highly, highly perishable items into our trash compactor outside in whatever weather we were having.
The compactor sat down in a loading dock, so you did not have to raise up a barrel weighing hundreds of pounds to dump it. Basically, you just had to tip them over into the compactor. The dumping maneuver was not a problem. The compactor pushed the waste back into an empty dumpster.
The problem with the situation is that slop does not compact. It would rather just ooze out of the cracks or the side of the compactor, so it did, by the gallon each day. This accumulation was old, and . . .urp, rank. It was not often that we could clean the area, except around the outside of the compactor. Underneath was garbage HELL.
One day I was determined not to let the situation continue. When the dumpster got moved out, we were going to clean the asphalt. Everyone knew of my intention and they got incredibly busy.
This left just the team leader and myself. The team leader was a valuable worker and I really appreciated all of his help. He was not perfect, but it was easy to overlook his faults because he was always there when needed.
So we watched the dumpster being pulled away. It revealed a multicolored mass of waste about the same size and shape as the space underneath the huge dumpster. The blob was just plain noxious. The stink was a cartoonish, apocalyptic, wretched stink as if we were at the sphincter of the planet.
We did not have time to marvel at how this horrifying spectacle came to be. The waste management driver was waiting on us to do the job so he could put in a new hopper.
Generally, I do not have a problem with smelly stuff. I was still able to function. My team leader was not faring so well. I started joking about eating lunch and he started yacking and dry heaving, but he kept working. So I quit with the stupid jokes.
We had to shovel this cesspool of waste into barrels and hoist them back up to the dock so they could be re-dumped later in the next dumpster.
Other sanitors would come along and watch us. Maybe move a barrel or two and laugh and walk away, preferring better air to breathe.
It was horrible. We filled up about 20 barrels or so as full as we could, and still be able to lift them. Once this traumatic chore was done. (Note: This is making me sick to my stomach just thinking about this as I write.) Then we had to hose down the dock. I wanted it clean enough to eat off of. (Just kidding.}
We must have did a perfect job. It never needed done again.
Close Call: I was cleaning a dough mixer that would only run if the lid was down. I had a big metal belt buckle that touched the proximity sensor and briefly caused the mixer to run. it could have been badly hurt. I reported the situation and I was told to be more careful next time.