It's something we all take for granted but how many of us know what it's really like to be a binman. Reporter Charles Heslett joined a crew to experience a day-in-the-life of a refuse collector.

After one day as a binman I got back to the Bradford Council's cleansing depot in Harris Street looking like a street urchin and desperate for a bath.

My day had started way before seven o'clock in the morning in the depot's canteen buzzing with men ready to get out on their shifts.

Many of the 28 bin wagons had already sped out on their rounds to allow their teams of "Binners" to get a running start on the job ahead.

The city's refuse collection teams work morning shifts Monday to Friday to keep up with the continual flow of waste and rubbish spewed out by the city's 470,000 population.

I confess I cheated a bit and joined the Clayton round half way through but soon found out the life of a binman portrayed in the BBC hit series 'Common As Muck' was a bit idyllic.

In reality the six-strong team of men I was with was a much more efficient unit which worked with military precision with the priority on speed. Bob Hunt, 53, who started working on the bins in 1973, drove our bin wagon, which carries 12 tonnes of rubbish. The team has no 'leader' as such. Everyone works together to get the job done.

At the start of the round four men went ahead of the truck "Pulling out" the black rubbish sacks from their bins and leaving them in regular piles at the sides of the road. This left them easily accessible for "Throwing on" by one or two men who follow the refuse truck. I was "Throwing on" with Andy MacCarton, 33, a binner for five years.

It sounds easy enough, but done at speed involves co-ordination to avoid chucking bin bags in the face of your fellow binman.

You've got to develop a rhythm and according to Andy "Not everyone can pick it up. We had one guy who lasted an hour before he just said he was off. Another just turned and left straight away."

Split bags, overflowing bags, bags which haven't been tied properly, bags with everything but the kitchen sink thrown into them slow the job down.

I worked for two hours pretty much flat out, often running between piles of bin bags, throwing on, then onto the next. It was sunny day and we finished fifteen minutes early so everybody was sweating but happy.

"Binning" is a job which demands a high level of physical fitness and the ability to work in a team.

It may not be everybody's cup of tea but it's an essential job and one that's quite rewarding. Having said that I only did it for half a day and the sun was shining.

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