Full episode
249: Garbage
Act One

Oh, Mr. San Man

The people who pick up our trash don't call themselves garbagemen. They're san men ("san" being short for "sanitation"). Host Ira Glass follows a couple of New York city san men around for a day (with NYU's Robin Nagle, who's writing about about the san men), to find out what 4.8 pounds of trash per person per day looks like from street level. (12 minutes)