Trash Truck Treasures

Garbage trucks and the employees who work on them perform tasks comparably thankless to football offensive linemen. If they do their jobs well, it’s expected; if they fail to show up or do their jobs properly, residents will readily voice their displeasure (which lends credence to the adage, “The worst thing that can happen to a city is a sanitation strike.”)

Spurred by Mayor Phil Amicone and Public Works Commissioner John Liszewski, the Yonkers (NY) Dept. of Public Works (DPW) sagely decided to honor the vital role the city’s sanitation workers perform, as well as the important role what their residents place in their trash bins, when it commissioned the design, fabrication and installation of full-truck wraps for its six refuse-hauling vehicles – which it titled, simply, Art Trucks. The project’s unveiling coincided with this year’s Yonkers Business Week, when the city in southern Westchester Co. honors the role commerce plays in enhancing the city’s quality of life.

Yonkers officials enlisted JMC Art Partners (New Rochelle, NY) to manage the product’s completion. Co-principals Jodi Boone and Mona Chen issued an RFP that attracted more than 100 entries nationwide. Boone said, “In addition to making the city’s sanitation trucks more attractive, the project emphasizes the attention that recycling, pollution and other environmental issues require. It all starts with reducing your waste stream at your home or office. We’re proud to part of such a progressive projects – to our knowledge, it’s the first such application in the U.S.”

The JMC team and Liszewski selected six designs (see captions); winning designers were paid $2,000 apiece for their efforts. Plug Digital Direct (NYC) output the winners on its Mutoh Toucan at 720 x 720-dpi resolution using 3M Commercial Graphics' Controltac™ IJ180 inkjet media, and protected the work with 8518 gloss-finish overlaminate. Phil Paradise, the company’s owner and a 15-year vehicle-graphics veteran, said the truck’s many contours and curves proved to be challenging.

“There are hundreds of contours and rivets on a garbage truck, and they required a very detailed template,” he said. “The surface required compensating for all dimensions, and a slow, methodical installation. Each wrap required a full day and plenty of heat guns to install.”

The wraps were installed in May, and continue to roll proudly through Yonkers, and they’ve inspired the city’s school system to implement educational materials into the curriculum that promote environmental awareness and education.

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