Waste management workers have gone from hero to zero in the public’s eyes since the pandemic, UK research says

Dustmen and road sweepers have gone from hero to zero in the public’s eyes since the end of the COVID pandemic, new research says.

During the lockdowns people clapped dustmen who, as a vital public sector service, continued to work even at risk to their health. But when the country returned to normal, the dustmen reported being treated as lazy and incompetent by the public, the study found.

Five UK researchers interviewed 42 council refuse collectors, road sweepers, litter pickers and graffiti removers in London and the south-east of England in 2020, in between the first and second lockdowns, and again in 2021, after the country had returned to normal.

The five are: Professor Natalia Slutskaya, University of Sussex; Professor Annilee Game, University of East Anglia; Dr. Rachel Morgan, Brunel University; Dr. Izabela Delabre, Birkbeck University of London; and Professor Tim Newton, University of Leicester.

In an article published in Sociology, they write, “Unlike many other occupations, those involved in waste management during the pandemic were classified as essential workers and expected to continue doing their jobs.”

The workers told the researchers about “their sense of public duty in averting the health risks of waste piling up,” which was particularly important given “an upsurge in workloads due to previously unseen forms of litter, such as face masks and plastic gloves, and greater waste from increased online shopping and DIY.

“The rise in the volume of litter led to the intensification of workers’ schedules, extended routes, longer rounds and six-day working weeks. Yet, workers in our study continuously emphasized the importance of doing a good job, priding themselves on their physical stamina and on the contribution of their labor to the community.

“They confessed to the positive feelings evoked from being on the receiving end of acknowledgment and respect, even as they felt self-conscious and diffident about being labeled heroes. Grassroots social media fueled public displays of support for these and other lower-paid, lower-status workers, such as clapping for key workers, because they were seen as bearing the brunt of the pandemic in order to keep the country running.”

One litter picker told the researchers, “I felt embarrassed when they were clapping, you’re waving back like you’re a superhero, you’re a celebrity. I’m just a normal dustman, but it was good, the country showing their appreciation.” A dustcart driver said, “We were respected out on the streets. People were giving us respect as a group.”

But the researchers wrote that after the lockdowns had ended, “our respondents reported that their day-to-day exchanges with the public reverted to experiences of ‘being treated like dirt again’ or conceived as lazy and less competent.

“The pandemic did not result in a revisiting of the status order that relegates those in waste management jobs to the bottom of the status hierarchy, through such negative sociocultural attributes as being lazy, unintelligent, uneducated, or lacking the ambition, skills or abilities to perform any other tasks.”

One dustcart driver said, “In the pandemic they were clapping us, now they treat you like dirt again, you get abuse, you get threatened, we had silly little notes in the bins threatening us, calling us lazy bastards, we’ve heard it all.”

Other comments made to workers by the public included: “We are paying your wages and you’re sitting around smoking or something,” or “Clearing rubbish is basic work, you should be grateful you have a job.”

One litter picker told the researchers, “The concept of it all is that, because you work for the Council, you don’t work hard—they see council workers as shirkers. Once a stigma is attached to a certain job, it’s very, very difficult to clear that stigma.”

One said, “I think that because the way that society is nowadays, if you’ve got a job with money, you’re elite and people look up to that. They look at people like road cleaners and they think you’ve got nothing—we’re not important to them.”

The interviewees, all men who had worked for their council for between five and 40 years, also complained that their employment conditions were getting worse. One said, “Now employment is based on zero hours, part-time work, extremely low pay. People who say ‘you’re lucky to have a job’—that is wrong.”

One litter picker said, “Nothing has changed since the pandemic. When I pay for my rent, it’s basically near enough all my wages, it’s straightaway gone.”