Garbage truck

[1] The 1920s saw the first open-topped trucks being used, but due to foul odors and waste falling from the back, covered vehicles soon became more common.

The first technique developed in the late 1920s to solve this problem was to build round compartments with corkscrews that would lift the load and bring it away from the rear.

In 1937, George Dempster invented the Dempster-Dumpster system in which wheeled waste containers were mechanically tipped into the truck.

Front loaders generally service commercial and industrial businesses using large waste containers with lids known as Dumpsters in the US.

[3] The truck is equipped with powered forks on the front which the driver carefully aligns with sleeves on the waste container using a joystick or a set of levers.

The German Shark design (later Rotopress) used a huge rotating drum fitted with spiral shaped paddles to draw waste in, and force it around an auger of decreasing pitch to compress it.

SEMAT-Rey of France pioneered the rotating rake system (also used in the British Shelvoke and Drewry Revopak) to simultaneously shred and compress the waste as it is loaded.

A mixture of safety concerns, and higher fuel consumption has seen a decline in the popularity of continuously compacting garbage trucks, with only the Rotopress design remaining in production due to its niche in being able to effectively deal with green waste for composting.

[7] An automated side loader only needs one operator, whereas a traditional rear load garbage truck may require two or three people,[8] and has the additional advantage of reducing on the job injuries due to repetitive heavy lifting.

[9] As with front loaders, the compaction mechanism comprises a metal pusher plate (often called an 'inverted drawer' due to its appearance) in the collection hopper which oscillates backwards and forwards under hydraulic pressure, pushing the refuse through an aperture, thus compacting it against the material already loaded.

Manual/Automated side loaders (M/ASLs), are traditional MSLs equipped with an arm for automated collection, as well as continuously running packers.

In addition, M/ASLs provide a cheaper upgrade path for those who wish to keep preexisting MSLs for automated collection without paying for newer and more expensive ASLs.

Semi-automated side loaders are MSLs that are equipped with an automated mechanism to lift and dump manually aligned waste containers into the hopper.

This can create some confusion for people because they may not notice the automatic gate and assume that the truck mixes garbage and recyclables during the collection process.

[12] Pneumatic collection trucks have a crane with a tube and a mouthpiece that fits in a hole, usually hidden under a plate under the street.

Grapple trucks have hydraulic knucklebooms, tipped with a clamshell bucket, and usually include a dump body or trailer.

[14] Bin tippers usually have a steel frame, guarding and cradle, with a motor or crank-handle driving a lifting mechanism, which may be hydraulic or chain operated.

Bins are placed into the machine, then lifted and inverted over the destination receptacle, allowing the contents to be emptied by gravity.

A side-load bin tipper was fitted to a garbage truck as early as 1929, by the Heil company in America.

Health and safety concerns have also driven the adoption of bin tippers in the manufacturing, food-processing and construction industries.