Garbage truck facts for kids
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A garbage truck is a special kind of truck designed to pick up our trash and take it away. You might also hear them called a rubbish truck, dustcart, or bin lorry. Their main job is to collect waste from homes and businesses. Then, they carry it to a special place like a landfill or a recycling center.
Garbage trucks are super important for keeping our neighborhoods clean and healthy! They come in different types, depending on how they pick up the trash. Some lift bins from the front, others from the side, and many from the back.
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How Garbage Trucks Work
Garbage trucks are built to make collecting trash easier and faster. Most modern trucks have a special system that crushes the trash. This helps them fit more waste inside, so they don't have to go to the landfill as often.
Types of Garbage Trucks
There are a few main ways garbage trucks pick up trash:
Front Loaders
Front loaders are often used for big dumpsters at businesses or apartment buildings. They have two large forks at the front that lift the dumpster over the truck's cab. The trash then falls into a hopper at the top of the truck. Inside, a special plate pushes the trash towards the back, compacting it.
Rear Loaders
Rear loaders are probably the most common type you see in neighborhoods. Workers lift trash cans and empty them into an opening at the back of the truck. A powerful "packer" blade then pushes the trash inside and crushes it. This type of truck often needs one or two people to help load the bins.
Side Loaders
Side loaders pick up trash from the side of the truck. Some need a person to manually lift bins, while others are "automated." Automated side loaders have a robotic arm that reaches out, grabs a trash can, lifts it, and empties it into the truck. This means the driver can stay inside the cab, making the job quicker and safer.
Specialized Trucks
Besides the main types, there are also trucks for specific kinds of waste:
- Recycling trucks are similar but often have separate compartments for different materials like paper, plastic, and glass.
- Grapple trucks have a large claw or crane to pick up bulky items like old furniture or tree branches.
- Pneumatic collectors use powerful vacuums to suck waste through underground pipes, often found in cities with special waste systems.
The Journey of Your Trash
Once a garbage truck is full, it drives to a waste facility. This could be a:
- Landfill: A large area where trash is buried.
- Transfer station: A place where trash is sorted and then loaded onto bigger trucks or trains to go to a landfill or other facility.
- Recycling center: Where materials are processed to be made into new products.
- Waste-to-energy plant: Where trash is burned to create electricity.
Garbage trucks play a vital role in keeping our communities clean and managing the waste we produce every day.
Images for kids
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A Scania front loader
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Thornycroft Steam Dust-Cart of 1897 with tipper body
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RS-3 Lightning Rear Steer truck
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14.5 m3 rear load container serviced in Copenhagen
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A Lōdal Evo T-28 manual side loader
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A WhiteGMC WXLL/Heil Python automated side loader. Note the collection of two containers, as opposed to one.
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An EDCO McNeilus automated side loader collecting trash in Vista, California.
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Volvo pneumatic collector used for "waste suction"
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Grapple truck
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Garbage truck in a medium-sized city Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland
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An EDCO Heil automated side loader collecting trash in Vista, California, US.
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Garbage truck KAMAZ on the streets of Ulan-Ude
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A garbage truck in Kolkata intricately decorated with Indian truck art
See also
In Spanish: Camión de recogida de desechos para niños
