Original subtitles

They say one man's trash

is another man's treasure...

And they were right.

Just my size.

Just have to find the other one.

My name is Daniel Petronijevic.

I'm an actor...

You ever seen the Milky Way over Lake Titicaca?

...and I've played a ton of blue collar jobs on TV.

May the welding gods be with us!

But I've always wondered, do I have what it takes

to do it in real life?

Well...

We're about to find...

'Cause this is Blue Collar.

We've all taken our bins to the curb

a thousand times, but who's really

given much thought as to what happens after

the garbage fairies make it all magically disappear?

Today I'm working with Miller Waste Systems,

a family founded company from 1961 that sorts trash,

manages recycling, and converts today's organics

into tomorrow's compost. Let's get wasted.

Hey, are you Dan?

Daniel, yeah, good to meet ya.

Jody. Nice to meet you.

- Pleasure to meet you, sir. - Absolutely.

Looks like these trucks are all on the move.

I gotta get on a truck.

Before you get on a truck,

we're gonna do some training with you.

Safety's number one here.

Safety's number one, baby, hit it.

Ready to get sweaty, dirty, and stinky.

We're gonna turn him into a garbage man

by the end of the day.

Luke! Theresa! Over here!

We're gonna meet your new partner for the day.

Easy, easy.

- Daniel. - Daniel? I'm Luke.

It's a pleasure to meet you. - Good to meet you, sir.

Here you're coming out to help us

get some garbage off the street.

Certainly am.

- Hi Dan, I'm Theresa. - How you doing? Theresa?

There's no hugs or handshakes in garbage.

I don't know where your hands have been.

Well, they haven't been anywhere too bad yet,

except maybe a morning bowel movement,

but I didn't wash.

So, we're all one big happy family.

We're all gonna get sweaty and dirty

and smelly together.

That's fantastic. Let's go, let's fire it up.

We got to work!

First, we gotta do a bit of training.

Oh.

This job can be dangerous,

so we gotta make sure you know how to do it safely.

First thing, we gotta stretch out your upper body.

You'll be lifting, you know, maybe 20 tons today.

Do one of these stretches? Oh!

Karate chop, ninja.

You want to see this? I can do this.

I'm pretty glad I took all those ballet lessons.

Pretty nimble. Yeah!

You need to take this more seriously.

I'm taking it serious.

Look at the flexibility I have.

Next thing we gotta do is safe lifting.

So, when you're lifting, do you...

keep your back straight and your legs bent?

I want it curved like a pretzel.

Yeah, no.

- Lift with your legs. - Look at that, money.

3, 2, 1...

ass blow!

Good stuff. Right in the soup.

Soup.

Blegh, gross.

So now to get it to pack,

you're gonna pull both these handles towards you.

So you notice a really big pinch point.

When that closes, if your hand's there...

it won't be there anymore.

So in order to run it,

we've got these two green buttons.

Your hands have to be pushing them on.

And you're gonna hold 'em on until the packer's closed.

Garbage juice sprays!

Things get squished, things squirt out.

Okay!

So don't go back there

unless you want a Miller baptism.

I like getting squirted by a bunch of stuff.

Garden hoses...

various things like that.

But I don't want to get squirted here.

We don't want your mullet

to be filled with maggots.

I do not want that.

It'll spray like 10 feet.

I don't want nothing squirting on me here.

Nothing. No fucking thing.

Nothing!

On this job, the juice is not worth the squeeze.

Let's go get him some practise on the street.

Check out the junk in my trunk!

Yeehaw!

I'm the king of the curb!

Whoa!

Woo! Let's get grimy.

When you open the cans, you got to watch out for

batteries, sharps, poisons,

chemicals, stuff like that.

Why do we got to watch out for batteries?

Batteries, when you crush 'em

in the truck can burst into flame.

We get fires on our trucks alone

about once every other week.

If I do find anything good,

I'm probably gonna keep it.

Any money, old porno mags.

Big collector of those.

All the trash talking. That's great,

but it's not gonna get the garbage off the street.

So let's go.

Oh, that is a heavy one, isn't it?

Oh, shit!

That was heavier.

Leave that on top, upside down.

That way they know it's been picked up.

- She gone! - Perfect!

- Hop on the step! - Moving on!

Let's go to the next house.

Hi, ho Miller!

- Let's go! - Away!

We just gotta do this street and we're done, right?

No, we've got a whole neighbourhood.

How many houses do you think

it would take to fill this truck up?

In a normal run, we'd do about a thousand.

A thousand!

Let's go. Ta-da! Oh, that's a stink.

Yep, toss 'er in the truck.

Toss 'er in.

Bingo.

Did you see the finesse in which I did that?

I know.

I almost think you've done it two bags before.

Oops.

Make sure you don't leave any mess behind.

We keep the streets clean.

You're a superhero, almost,

like Batman or something.

Right.

Like, he runs alongside of it the whole time,

and you don't know how much each bin weighs.

You see the speed at which we're doing this.

It is way harder than I thought.

- Carry on! - Let's go!

Hi-ho, Miller! Away!

How many more houses we have left?

Why is it so heavy?

Let me show you how it's done.

Okay, okay...

Oh, that's the lightest one we've had so far.

Do you need some help with those?

- No, no! - You sure?

Geez, you taking a ride?

I'm riding my golden chariot.

Why wouldn't I? Oh, look at this.

Oh, yeah, daddy likey.

Wee! Wee! Woo!

Get that chair in the truck and let's go!

I might've hurt my back doing those spins.

- Hiya! - Well done.

That's getting pretty full now.

I mean, maybe later it'll juice you in the face.

Oh! I'm gonna do some spinning moves.

Try not to. That'll throw your back out.

What if I just do it like this

and then I go like this?

Then they I- hiya!

- It was pretty cool. - Maybe.

it'll be really cool at the chiropractor's next week.

Gone!

Don't move.

I am the Trashinator.

This is gonna take forever.

Hey, you know what?

If you're not having fun, you might as well not do it.

Come on. Come on, Trashinator.

Put your money where your mouth is.

Agh!

This is freaking exhausting.

Quitting is not an option.

- This is the last bag. - Better pack that.

3, 2, 1.

Two points of contact on the ground

at all time with your feet.

- Is that correct, sir? - That's correct.

Two hands on the button.

Power shot.

Watch out, don't get squirted.

Oh, yeah. That's it, we're done.

Where are we eating lunch?

What? Sanny?

- Sandwich for you. - A sanich?

- Yeah. - You're the man.

- I know. - I'm starving.

What do you got in there?

Orange?

Good PB & J.

It is, yeah. Enjoy.

Thanks.

Little skimpy on the PB, but I don't like crusts so...

She gone.

So o far, I'm doing pretty good.

I didn't get my Miller baptism.

No offence to Millers, but I don't want it.

Put your safety glasses on, Dan.

Engage. Back 'er in, back 'er in.

All right, Dan, let's get out

- and dump this truck. - Let's do it.

You're gonna pull that until the tailgate

is all the way open.

- I get to do it? - Oh yeah, of course.

Holy shit!

You're- alright, you know what?

I draw the line at hugs.

- Ha-ha-ha! - Go for it.

We just hold it until that goes all the way up.

So you're gonna push that one in.

Release the garbage!

Oh yeah. Get ready for the smell!

Dan, go check out that pile for

any hazardous waste.

Garbage collection is one of the

most dangerous jobs in the world.

I have the power!

- Hey! - Well done, Dan!

Of propane!

No explosions today.

All hazardous waste doesn't go in the garbage,

So don't throw any more hazardous waste in the trash

because you might blow these nice people up.

- Next stop, recycling. - Well done, Dan.

You want a hug, don't you?

No, I don't.

Seems to be a real softie, that guy.

Shit this is gonna be probably pretty-

Holy Mary mother of recycling!

Geez!

That is Mount Everest of recycling.

200,000 tons of recycling goes through

this facility in a year.

All this recycling travels through a maze of

conveyor belts and multiple sort rooms

where the team sorts every material by hand.

Eventually, everything is sorted and bailed.

Are you ready for it?

I'm absolutely ready.

Dan, this is Antoinette.

Antoinette is gonna show you everything you need to know.

Hi, Dan, how are you?

Nice to meet you. Okay, let's get you

all suited up. By the end of this,

you're gonna have a PhD in recycling.

That's what I want to hear, Professor.

How hard can this be, really?

It's gonna be challenging.

We're working on conveyor belts and a lot of people

get seasick when they watch all the material

going by so, we'll see if Dan can handle that.

After you, Boss.

Okay, this is the first line of defence.

This is where everything starts.

Okay.

We're taking off all the contaminants,

plastic bags, garbage.

Any wood, any metal.

What people put in recycling

that should not go in the recycling.

Yes sir, yes sir.

Some of you guys don't do a good job at home,

so we get it. So now we have to do that.

Right.

Sort your trash or I'll kick you in the ash,

give you some smash.

All the stuff that we're taking off

goes down this chute.

How fast? Like this fast?

And both hands.

You have to use both hands.

- Like this? - Yeah... Yeah.

I'm getting ready for it right now.

Don't look on the belt like this.

You want to be looking at down there.

It's coming towards you.

As it gets to you, you want to grab it...

Get it off.

- Let the games begin. - Here we go!

Holy shit. Get the arms going.

Get the arms going. Get the...

Styrofoam, this stuff.

There's garbage, put it down here.

You gotta look, okay?

- Let it go? - See, see?

That's why you gotta focus over there.

65 picks per minute.

- Okay, let's go. - Whoa-ho!

- All these wires. - What the fuck is that?

Oh! Watch out, that stinks!

Faster! Both hands.

You're missing too much!

Look all that's going by you, man.

- I'm trying! - Faster!

Antoinette, I'm doing my best!

I can't stop grabbing things!

Please don't keep putting your garbage

in your blue bin or Uncle Dan will have to

go and punch you in the chin. Kapow!

This all looks the same.

Oh, gosh.

Hey, Antoinette, I'm starting to get dizzy.

I don't know, I'm feeling funny.

Oh, God, I'm getting dizzy.

The first day, the conveyor belt,

it moves very fast.

It kind of plays tricks on your mind

so you'll feel dizzy all the time.

Tell me what to do!

This is for cardboard only.

Okay.

Teamwork.

High-five the shit out of that! Teamwork!

- Teamwork! - Ha-ha!

We've been sorting stuff,

picking up all kinds of shit.

By the power of mullet...

We got more work.

What's this?

So this is our water bottles and

juice bottles, and we are taking out all the

other stuff that's not supposed to be here.

We get a lot more water bottles and pop bottles

and juice bottles in the summertime.

What about this? Good or bad?

That's bad. That's not for this side.

- That's gone? - Yeah.

That's a different grade of plastic.

- Plastic bags are out? - Yeah.

- Garbage. - Yeah.

Ugh! That fucking stinks!

Whoa.

- It's fucking full! - What are you doing?

No, you can't do that.

Oh, yeah.

- Want some? - No!

It had vodka in it!

No drinking on the job. Really?

No, that was in your pocket.

We've been sortin', lootin', poopin',

and scoopin', I don't know what the hell we've

been doing, but we're having a good time.

Okay, Dan, I have something to do.

Yeah?

I'll catch up with you later.

What do you mean? Where are you going?

Get to work.

Holy fuck. Oh, well.

Recycling's sexy.

Excuse me, sir, I'm Daniel.

- Dane. - Dane? Good to meet ya.

How do you do this so fast?

Can I learn from you?

It's the willpower, it's the willpower.

It's motivation.

- Experience. - Experience?

You guys are the fastest over here.

I can't believe, all the shit's flying

all over the place. What's your name?

Sandy.

Dane and Sandy, the dynamic duo.

The paper stays.

- Yeah, yeah. - Holy, holy.

- Nope, nope. - No? Oh.

If there was ever a garbage, plastic sorting Olympics...

Go, Dane, go!

They'd win the whole bloody thing.

Holy shit!

Can't even get in there.

Hey guys, thanks a lot for everything,

but you guys are way above my league.

I have to admit, I've been pretty guilty.

Like sometimes I'm lazy as hell.

I'll just take the bacon grease and

throw it right in there with the bag of trash and

all kinds of other crap,

'cause I'm like, what the hell,

they don't do anything anyways.

Well, now I know I'm bloody well wrong.

I can pick up garbage, I can pick up...

I can sort trash.

I gotta get out of here. I'm getting fucking dizzy.

Separate it, separate and the separate it.

Separating.

Hey Dan. Hey.

Are you taking a non-authorised break?

Huh?

When I had that wee episode up there

in the sorting room, I kind of felt like

I was on mushrooms and maybe some ecstasy

all at the same time.

You don't look too good. Come, let's go.

Let me take you to the bale area.

I guess that's common, so...

not the mushrooms and the ecstasy,

just the freaking out.

Woo! Feeling good!

- Feeling better? - I'm back in action!

Dan, put that lid on.

Yes, sir.

So, listen, this is where it all comes together.

All the material we've been sorting ends up down here.

All of this has been baled and it's ready to be

sent out to end markets where it'll get

turned into something else.

So we've got our bales of aluminium, mixed plastic,

mixed paper, cardboard bales.

It's like the reincarnation of everything

that goes in your blue bin.

You just throw some shit in there,

it magically disappears and comes over here,

turns into all this cool shit.

Then somebody's gonna take it and

turn it into a bunch of other cool shit.

It's like the cosmos, bro.

What we got to do is we got to check our bales out.

We got to see any kind of material

that's not supposed to be there.

That's mixed paper.

You got to pick out everything in that bale

that's not mixed paper.

Alright, ready?

Go! "Yow! Yer... yow."

Plastic!

"Neow, neow, neow."

Water bottle!

Bum wipe container.

How do I look?

Cute.

What do you think, Antoinette?

He passed the test?

Yeah, he passed the test.

- Congratulations. - Holy shit, Antoinette!

He missed Miller's baptism today,

but he will get that baptism.

Everybody goes through it.

- Next stop... - Yeah?

Compost. Go find Tyler.

Tyler! Hello!

Tyler!

Where the fuck are you, Tyler?

There's a truck coming in. Oh, yeah.

Hello, help me!

I'm Tyler. Are you Dan?

Yeah. Good to meet you.

How's it going? Whoa!

You stink a little bit there.

I just came from shit soup.

Well, it's a little better here.

It is, I can smell it.

- You're gonna need these. - What are we doing?

We're gonna show you the whole process of

composting for the incoming yard waste.

- Let's get dirty. - You're in the back.

Tally ho!

The brake is the coward pedal!

Ha-ha!

Dan's gonna be starting from the bottom.

So he's gonna start with sorting through

the contaminants.

We'll show him how we process it

through the grinder.

We're gonna turn a row together and then

we'll finish off the process with bagging

some finished material.

La-la-la!

La-la-la-la!

So, this is where the trucks come.

They dump all the yard waste and what we're gonna

do here is sort through all the contaminants.

- It's a bloody mountain. - That's okay.

You gotta climb like a Billy goat.

What am I looking for?

We got bags, we got plastics.

What about that black thing there?

Take it out, that's a flower pot.

- Plant pot. - Plant pot.

So I'm looking for pot plants.

Alright, let's get 'er done.

Mount Mullet...

where legends and compost are made.

Why do people dump all the shit in it?

Like, how did it even get here?

That's just pure laziness.

What do we got here?

- Bring it down. - I ain't bringing it.

I'm throwing it.

This one's got some rancid shit in it.

Oh, got one here.

Some pressure treated wood also.

- No good? - No good.

Why not?

It's not natural, got chemicals.

Not natural. "Wood" you or wouldn't you?

I got two kids and a wife at home. I'm okay.

That's fine. Bye-bye, wood.

What about all these paper bags?

The paper bags are good.

They're designed to compost with the material.

Anything that's biodegradable?

Biodegradable.

I think I found a used rubber.

I might save it up. You might need it for later.

Keep going, you're doing good.

Black garbage bag!

Well, obviously I scampered up fucking the

mighty Mount Mullet like a Billy goat.

Ah! Motherfucker!

And I noticed how much plastic waste that

we seem to all put in our yard waste.

Me included.

Stop putting plastic crap in your yard waste!

Ha-ha!

We sort through all the contaminants.

From there, it goes into a grinder.

The grinder!

That used to be my nickname in high school!

That moves into a wind row where we can turn it.

Holy mother of God.

Look at the teeth on that.

Yeah, so right here, this is our compost turner.

What it does, it'll straddle the row.

It'll turn the compost from the bottom up to the top,

and introduce aerobic composting.

Aerobics! Sure, man, fuck,

I can do all kinds of 'em.

Fucking Tae Bo, and watch this.

Downward dog. Oh, shit.

This is gonna be fucking legendary.

Get ready for the speed.

Send this bitch.

This thing is sending.

- This is it? - This is it.

This is sending? Holy shit.

I was gonna say let me drive, but like,

realistically I can get out and fucking log roll

faster than this.

Now why are we doing this?

It's taking the stuff from the bottom and

it's bringing it to the top so it's able to cool down,

and then it's introducing the stuff up top that's cool

back into the middle of the row,

almost creating like a little oven.

Ultimately, this will become what?

Top soil?

This will become our premium compost.

All right, so what we'll do next is

we're gonna go to the bagger to bag up this

black gold and give it to the sales department.

- Really? - Yeah.

Black gold, you say?

Do you need any help in the sales department?

I'm quite the salesman.

- We'd love to. - That's black gold.

This here is fucking yellow gold.

This here is horseshit that comes out of there.

How are you, sir?

Not bad! Gotta get some ultra soil.

Oh, that's great.

I'm glad you're here right now actually.

This is the most high quality compost and

landscaping product here since 1990.

Great for Grandma's Garden.

- Beautiful. - You know what I mean?

Just this high quality, 14K,

every fucking thing in here.

Handcrafted. This product is me.

I know it inside and out.

I sorted it.

I chopped it, I busted it.

I believe in this product.

How many bags do you need?

Four.

Doing the double carry, look at this.

Alright, buddy, you're good!

We'll see you later.

My time at Miller Waste has been messy, stinky,

and truly filthy, but I learned a lot.

I got to work with Jody and his whole team.

These people take pride in the work that they do.

It's essential, they do it every day,

and it stinks like shit.

And they help keep our communities clean.

Big time respect!

Now I've been summoned to a meeting and hopefully

they don't talk shit about me after

all the nice stuff I said about them.

- Hey, guys. - Hi, Dan.

Why so serious? What's going on?

Dan, I've gathered the team here

to find out how you did.

So, do you think Dan has what it takes to work

at Miller Waste Systems?

If fart jokes got the job done,

you'd be one of us.

Dan, I think if you focus a bit more,

you'd be an excellent worker.

I was fucking around. Sorry mama.

There seems to be a theme here

- with you messing around. - Pardon me.

But, ah, you cleaned Mullet Mountain there

just as clean as your hair, so I appreciate that.

For the record, I think if we combined

your moustache and my mullet,

any woman who stared at the combination

would probably faint.

Just from sheer love and ecstasy.

Dan, I've got to say, you showed up,

you tried hard and really that's all we're looking for.

Thanks, man.

The one thing that you failed to do is quit.

That's what it takes to be a garbage man.

I can't quit you, Luke! I can't!

You guys just kind of sorted me out.

Split me apart, grinded me up.

Upcycled me into a new, fresh mould,

and I'm proud to call myself part of the

Miller Waste Systems family.

Not so fast, Dan.

We talked about it on day one.

It didn't happen, but it's gonna happen now.

It's time for the Miller Baptism.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

No!

This water stinks!

Real life garbage juice, baby.

Real life garbage juice?

Welcome to the family.

This family stinks!

Ah! Fluffy...

Where have you been?