Garbage truck refers to a truck specially designed to collect small quantities of waste and haul the collected waste to a solid waste treatment facility. Other common names for this type of truck include trash truck and dump truck in the United States, and bin wagon, dustcart, dustbin lorry and bin motor elsewhere. Technical names include waste collection vehicle and refuse collection vehicle. These trucks are a common sight in most urban areas.
History
In 1938 the Load Packer was introduced by Garwin Industries, which revolutionized the sanitation industry. It was the first true compacting garbage truck. The trucks at that point could carry twice as much as before because they could compact the trash while driving through the city. By the 1950s there were many of these garbage trucks in use, and other manufacturers also started making them. By the late 1950s and early 1960s they started to manufacture industrial-strength compacting trucks. These trucks could handle larger objects and compacted better, allowing them a 25 percent larger load.
How the Compactor Truck Works
The trucks are loaded by sanitation engineers along neighborhood streets. The trash is loaded into a hopper in the back of the truck of rear loaders. Hydraulic cylinders operate the compacting mechanism, which takes the trash out of the hopper and places it into the body of the truck. As more trash is placed into the body, the more it gets compacted. Because the compacting unit is on the outside of the body of the truck, it keeps the trash from falling out of the truck when it is full or moving. When the truck is full the driver takes the trash to the dump. The rear of the truck tilts up like a dump truck and the hydraulic cylinders move the compacting panels out of the way. The trash is then dumped out of the truck and the back hosed out.
