A waste collector is a person employed by a public or private enterprise to collect and remove discarded refuse and recyclables from residential, commercial, industrial or other collection site for further processing and disposal. Specialised waste collection vehicles featuring an array of automated functions are often deployed to assist waste collectors in reducing collection and transport time and for protection from exposure.
Waste collectors are exposed to many on-the-job hazards, such as chemical burns, disposable needles, broken glass, falling objects from overloaded containers, diseases that may accompany solid waste, asbestos, dog-attacks, pests (ants, flies), dust, inclement weather, traffic and foul odours.
Nicodemus (Noddy) Boffin, aka the Golden Dustman, in Charles Dickens' Our Mutual Friend, probably based on Henry Dodd, a ploughboy who made his fortune removing London's rubbish.
The children's song/nursery rhyme - "My old mans a dustman, he wears a dustmans hat. he wears cor blimey trousers and he lives in a council flat"
