Picking Up: On the Streets and Behind the Trucks with the Sanitation Workers of New York City

Fascinating ethnographic account on the daily lives of sanitation workers in Gotham city, which otherwise gets invisibled in the fast pace consumerist lifestyle. We tend to focus only on the newness of things and forget about the things we dispose in daily lives. Nagel's work closely looks at after-life of wasted materials, processes of waste management post disposal and how the lives of sanitation workers get shaped by these processes.

what a book!!!! One part history of NYC's sanitation problems and solutions. Another part the life and struggles of those working to clear NYC streets of garbage with little to no recognition of their hard work. A really insightful and respectful look at New York's strongest.Recently visited New York where snow storms and freezing temps were battering the city and we saw these guys out each day clearing the streets. Next up lets have a book about MTA workers!!

The book is very detailed and is excellent to support my University course for my Bsc in wastes management and pollution control.

the first half of the book is really interesting, then it starts to wander. the conclusion is just sort of m'eh. Feels like something was missing.

Picking-up is a fantastic accounts of the relevance of garbage and other waste collection in our cities; it underlines the hidden difficulties of the job and it explains while citizens should be aware that an environmentally and health sound waste management begins with a proper collection.

Many people would be surprised (maybe even shocked) to learn that being a sanitation worker in New York City is more dangerous than being a policeman or a firefighter. I certainly didn't know as much before reading this book. And yet, despite the near-heroic work done by sanitation engineers, when a young and idealistic kid talks about the kind of job he might want to do when he grows up, something like firefighter or policeman tends to make the list right after a gig like astronaut, while "garbageman" is usually held in reserve as an insult, not a potential occupation.Robin Nagle's "Picking Up" is a solid sociological/anthropological exploration of this paradox of the sanitation worker, who performs one of the most essential services not just in the city but for civilization itself (trash piling up can lead to plagues). It is a job that, despite its importance, remains at best invisible to most, and at worst is something we denigrate as gross.It is gross, sometimes (i.e. the bumper crops of "urban whitefish," i.e. masses of used condoms), but it's also compelling and fascinating stuff. The section on the Sanitation Department's role during snowstorms was especially worth the read. "Picking up," however, seems to come up *just* short of being a classic foray into the genre, if for no other reason than that none of the workers involved ever achieve enough form to become memorable in their own right as personae in the drama playing out on the pages. Still, provided the reader doesn't go in expecting Ted Connover, this is solid bit of "immersive journalism." Recommended. No photos.