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As long as there are people, there will be the trash-filled job that never ends By
Jennifer Brennan
Crumpled-up brown paper towels, old cynderical, cardboard toilet-paper tubes and Straw Ibis coffee cups spill out of the plastic lining of wide-mouthed charcoal gray trashcans. "The dirtier, the more I enjoy it," Frank Verrera, the manager of the TSC janitors, says as he empties the overflowing trash. Kelly Lewis, one of Utah State University's full-time janitors once found poop in the trashcans. "I threw the whole can away," Lewis said. "Recycling
beats doing the bathrooms." Silence fills the air and it is time to go where no man has gone before.or even wants to. A pink and turquoise, Bubblicious gum wrapper flies across the light blue linoleum tile floor as air rushes into the Taggart Student Center's second floor bathroom as Lewis opens the door to the bathroom. After sweeping up loose fragments of yellow-speckled toilet paper, Lewis, grabs a toilet brush and Johnson and Johnson disinfectant, to scrub and bleach the grimy, greenish mold that rings the inside of the cold and slimy white toilet bowls. Lewis, married with a 2-year-old daughter, works full-time hours. Lewis says his priorities are family, school and work (in that order). "They are always complaining, but we work with them. Their priority is to study. Married students have a hard time," Verrera said. Verrera is wearing a blue-collared button down long sleeve shirt that is neatly tucked into his grayish blue polyester pants. He works from 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Verrera gets home around 2 a.m. and wakes up at 5:30 a.m. so he can see his wife before she leaves for work at 6 a.m. That thirty minutes spent with his wife is the most precious time of Verrera's day. It is the only time he gets to see his wife, due to the late shift he has been working for 23 years managing the TSC janitors. In the TSC, the first round of janitors come in at 5 p.m. to 9 pm. to sort and empty out the recycling bins. Mark Lawson and Vicki Zollinger, TSC janitors, team up while working the same shift. "Recycling beats doing the bathrooms," Lawson said. Together, they push a recycling cart the size of a golf car. They each gather the clutter around the trash bins and put the paper and plastic in the correct recycling bins. Both college-aged janitors take out the trash bags and start the voyage to the second floor. "We recycle so many phone books," Lawson says. "We recycle, sweep, vacuum, and sweep the stairwells." Lawson mumbled, while entering the Sage Room 213 with the recycle bins. "The Statesman, the campus newspaper, is the heaviest, of the recycled items, Lawson adds. A cold wind enters as Lawson opens the solid iron door to head out to the Dumpsters. "I am not looking forward to winter," Lawson says. Lawson looks about 6 feet tall and is a slender student. He is wearing a T-shirt and jeans, is dressed comfortably for the job. Zollinger is also dressed in a T-shirt and jeans. "It (work) fits my schedule with classes. It does make social life more difficult," Zollinger said. Both Lawson and Zollinger flatten the cardboard boxes and toss them in the mist of darkness that lurks at the bottom of the recycling dumpster. Laffy Taffy, Chewy Granola Bars, M&Ms cardboard boxes are all thrown into the Dumpster. "Soda boxes are the hardest to break down," Lawson says, as he folds once, folds twice, the last of the boxes. Repugnant and putrid smells cause them to clench their noses as they venture to a less desirable destination, the trash Dumpsters. The weirdest and grossest remnants can be found here. Zollinger reflected on a recent experience. Three days ago, gooey white stuff attached itself to Zollinger's hands when cleaning out the recycle bins. The remnant never was identified. Not knowing is for the best. Zest, Ivory or Dove are the only answers to Zollinger's situation. "Depending on what I do, I wash my hands at least three times a day," Lawson says, after remembering the time he got Wild Cherry Coke syrup on his shirt and hands. Aside from the typical chores of a janitor, there can also be wacky and unpredictable jobs such as cleaning the elevator grooves in front of the elevator. With a positive attitude, a job of a janitor can provide fun and entertaining activities. "Riding on the recycle cart when it's empty and going down ramps," can add fun to the job, Lawson said while Zollinger pushed him in the cart, down the hallway of the third floor, near the Statesman office. The clock has struck 9:30 p.m. and Zollinger and Lawson's will rest until the next day. Homework and sleep are what they will catch up on the next day, until it is time to go to work. With all of his children grown, the job is less strenuous for Verrera. Unfortunately, sleeping is not an easy task for him. "Lately, I have been getting less than three, Verrera pauses, "or four hours of sleep," he says. "Sleep deprivation gets to you," Lewis says, "but the nights work well with school." The night has fallen, the crickets are chirping, the wind is chapping his hands as Verrera expresses, "The job is pretty routine. The job's not boring because you move around a lot." Verrera said he doesn't have time to think, but his cousin is in the hospital, and the visits to the hospital are taking a toll on his sleep. I hope he will be leaving the hospital soon." Verrera worked also worked late shifts when he was truck driver. He hopes to retire within the next 10 years. Verrera likes "working alone-when nobody's around," he says. Like a child on an Easter egg hunt or a secret agent solving a case, janitors also have unexpected discoveries. "One of the janitors once found a skunk behind a screen in the auditorium," Verrera commented. Sadly enough, sometimes the skunk has a better fragrance than the trash that that sticks to the bottom of the trash bins. Trash cans can smell like a combination of rotten eggs, tuna, and contaminated meat. Each trashcan has a distinct smell. Another janitor found a naked man under the stage, Verrera said. The man had been a construction worker, who needed a place to curl up and go to sleep. Police arrived to urge the reluctant man to move, Verrera concluded. Aside from mysterious discoveries, weather can complicate a janitor's job. "If it rains, gooey stuff oozes out the bottom, leaking juice" out of the trash dumpsters, Verrera comments. If it is windy, the papers fly out of the Dumpsters. In the winter, the students track in snow and sand onto the linoleum floors. This makes the floors like sandpaper, and it is harder for the floors to be cleaned," Verrera said. Verrera puts water in a machine that looks like an oversized lawn mower, so he can clean the carpets. The bottom of the machine sucks up the dirt. The fiber padded propane buffers are used to give the Mr. Clean glow to all of the linoleum floors. Although these machines are benefit to getting the jobs done quicker, janitors do spend most time on their feet. It is 8:30 p.m., so what is left to do? "Ooh. just starting," Verrera says. At 9:30 p.m. Verrera usually starts his jobs in the Hub (also known as the TSC). Some of the rooms he cleans include the Copy Center and the Health Center. In the Copy Center, he checks that the trash has been taken out and the recycling is done. The Health Center, located on the first floor of the TSC, next to Zions Bank, has 18 rooms that must be cleaned and handled with special care. Janitors must have a shot for Hepatitis B before taking out the garbage. All of the full-time janitors are trained to work with chemicals. Everything in the clinic must be disinfected so Verrera handles this task. Out of 12 janitors who work in the TSC, five of the janitors work the full time shifts. The full-time shifts are either 5 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. or 4 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. Trash cans crawl with unidentified remnants. Floors become sandpaper with too many treads and no polish. Toilets form colonies of grayish bacteria under the white lining of the yellow-trickled toilet seats. "We're always busy. We could be here 24 hours a day," Verrera says.
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