Business was picking up Thursday for Robert Parra.
And why not? The West Los Angeles rubbish collector was halfway through the busiest week of the year as he scooped up barrel after barrel overflowing with wadded-up holiday gift wrap and empty toy boxes.
Next to the blue recycling bins were black garbage containers filled with turkey bones and the other remnants of Christmas dinner. And next to them were the green lawn-clipping barrels that this day were crammed with chopped-up Christmas trees.
It's this way every year between Christmas and New Year's Day for Los Angeles sanitation workers.
The city's holiday trash collection schedule means residential pickups are a day later than usual, which gives homeowners even more time to stuff their curbside containers, said Richard Myles, a manager with the city Bureau of Sanitation's refuse collection service.
On Ilona Avenue in the Rancho Park area, Parra maneuvered his $200,000 rubbish truck around parked cars so its automated arms could reach the blue recycling bins and hoist them. The truck holds 7 tons of cardboard, paper, glass and other recyclable material.
When he had made his first pass earlier in the morning on the opposite side of the street, Parra had encountered a scavenger snatching newspapers out of bins.
The man stacked them in the street next to the bins, apparently planning to return later to load them into his pickup.
But the wind was blowing the papers into the street. Parra had to climb out of his truck to retrieve them by hand. He did the same thing when a blue bin tumbled loose from his trash truck's hydraulically operated arms and spilled its load of used wrapping paper.
"We get out and try to pick up everything we can," he said with a shrug.
Watching appreciatively from down the street was homeowner Harry Hamparzumian.
"I've lived here 31 years. My house is all paid for," Hamparzumian said with a laugh. That means he remembers the days when city trash collectors emptied residents' small rubbish barrels by hand, dumping everything mixed together into the back of old-fashioned garbage trucks.
"It's a big week for these guys. This one's been with us forever. 'Thank you! Happy New Year!' " he shouted, waving to Parra.
