They’re big, they’re heavy and they hold a lot of trash or recycling! Wake up early enough and you might catch a glimpse of a Rumpke truck driving through the neighborhood. Rumpke’s fleet of more than 1,700 vehicles includes front load, rear load and roll off trucks. Rear load trucks are designed to handle trash or recycling in the safest, most efficient ways possible. Here are a few fun facts about that truck you see every week:

Busy drivers: Did you know that on garbage day, your driver stops, on average, at 500 houses? With each household throwing away an average of 50 pounds of trash a week, that’s a lot of garbage! Collection routes are designed to be as efficient as possible, to minimize emissions and fuel usage.

Expensive Equipment: A brand new rear load garbage truck can be very expensive, costing around $190,000. To keep the trucks in good shape and keep streets safe, all Rumpke drivers must go through 40 hours of training before hitting the streets.

Running on Garbage?: Rumpke extracts gases from its Colerain Township landfill and converts it into a useable natural gas that can be used to power homes, businesses or vehicles. In Greater Cincinnati, Rumpke is using about 25 rear load trucks that are powered by compressed natural gas, as an alternative to diesel.

Heavy load: Even without any trash or recycling, these trucks are extremely heavy! Completely empty, a rear load truck weighs 35,000 pounds. Add about 50 pounds from each household, and that’s one heavy truck!

Keeping streets clean: Garbage and recycling collection is a dirty business; which is why we tend to say that a clean truck is a happy truck. Every time a truck makes a trip to the landfill, its tires need to be washed. The wheel wash is a very high pressured stream of water that cleans all the dirt and garbage off the underside of the truck.

Mistaken Identity: Although they are often recognized as “garbage trucks” these trucks can be used to haul trash, recycling, yard waste or other materials. Read more about rear load recycling trucks.

Want to learn more? Check out our Pinterest page dedicated to Rumpke trucks or print off our activity sheets and other educational resources. You can also book a free landfill tour for a chance to see the trucks in action!

About the author: Darby Fledderjohn is the corporate communications intern.