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Amanda Butterfield reportingDon't be alarmed to see piles of garbage outside the most well-kept Salt Lake City homes. People are taking advantage of a service that not every Utahn gets.
From April until October, a crew with Salt Lake City has a full-time job to pick up trash -- tons and tons and tons of it. But we also found it's not just the city that is picking up the garbage.
Many residents are glad they don't have to haul all their garbage to the dump. "It's really nice. It's really, really good," Salt Lake City resident John Olsen said.
"I think they've done an excellent job, excellent," said Alene Allen, also a Salt Lake City resident. Her Avenues home is just one of dozens Salt Lake City Public Works will clean up today, and tomorrow, and the rest of the week.
Richard Hiatt, who is with the city's public works department, says during a good week, his crew collects 100 tons or more. "It's a great job," he said. "We get everything from carpet, wood, snowblowers, lawnmowers, whatever."
But Hiatt and his crew aren't the only ones residents watch take their stuff. "Right when I put the stuff out -- not even five, 20 minutes -- everyone was coming and getting things out of our piles," Olsen said.
"I had end tables, chairs, scrap metal; and it's all been taken," resident Joanie Lawlor said. But she says she doesn't mind people picking through her leftovers.
We tried to find some of the scavengers, but, like Lawlor, couldn't. "They're like ghosts in the night," she said. "We just wake up and our TV is gone, our end table is gone."
Olsen said, "I used to do it for a long time, and there's good stuff in there." He says it's the metal people are after because they can sell it for scrap.
Hiatt says it makes his crew's job a little lighter.
Just for fun, we asked Hiatt one more question about the trash pick-up: What is the craziest item you've found in these piles? "Can't put it on record!" he laughed.
We called Sandy Public Works and found they do a similar trash pick-up twice a year. Other cities place big dumpsters throughout neighborhoods and allow residents to put their junk in them. Some cities offer nothing at all.
E-mail: abutterfield@ksl.com