The Trash Project, a dance with 24 sanitation workers and 16 large vehicles of Austin Resource Recovery premiered on the misty Mueller tarmac in 2009. The documentary Trash Dance chronicled what it took to make trash trucks and workers dance on that tarmac and how hundreds of Austinites in the audience saw sanitation work and workers in a new light. Directed by local filmmaker Andrew Garrison, the film provides a special look at this year-long collaborative artmaking process led by Forklift Danceworks. Forklift and Austin Resource Recovery (ARR) joined together to host a family friendly event and outdoor screening of Trash Dance to celebrate sanitation workers and this one-of-a-kind dance. Hosted by Terrill Haigler aka Instagram’s @YaFavTrashman, audience members heard from ARR sanitation operators about their essential work and learn how ARR works to protect and positively impact our environment.
About ARR:
Austin Resource Recovery provides a wide range of services designed to transform waste into resources while keeping our community clean. Services include curbside collection of recycling, trash, composting and large brush and bulk items; street sweeping; dead animal collection; household hazardous waste disposal and recycling; and outreach and education. Austin Resource Recovery offers free, voluntary and confidential consulting services to help Austin businesses reduce waste and comply with the City’s recycling ordinances. In December 2011, the Austin City Council approved the Austin Resource Recovery Master Plan, which is the City’s road map to Zero Waste. The City of Austin is committed to reducing the amount of waste sent to area landfills by 90 percent by 2040. Learn more at austinrecycles.com.
About Trash Dance and Andrew Garrison:
Choreographer Allison Orr finds beauty and grace in garbage trucks, and in the unseen men and women who pick up our trash. Filmmaker Andrew Garrison follows Orr as she rides along with Austin sanitation workers on their daily routes to observe and later convince them to perform a most unlikely spectacle. On an abandoned airport runway, two dozen trash collectors and their trucks deliver — for one night only — a stunningly beautiful and moving performance, in front of an audience of thousands. Andrew Garrison is an independent filmmaker based in Austin, Texas, who works in both documentary and fiction.
About YaFavTrashman
Less than three months after accepting the position as laborer for the Philadelphia Sanitation Department, Terrill Haigler became an essential worker. To bridge the gap between residents and sanitation workers he created the Instagram page @_yafavtrashman to give residents an inside look as to what sanitation workers experience during the pandemic. When Terrill noticed that his co-workers didn’t have the proper PPE to execute their jobs safely he decided to stand in the gap and start a Custom Ink t-shirt fundraiser to purchase PPE, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies. Catapulting him to Philly’s latest viral sensation.
Special Thanks to Our Sponsors
Sponsors
Community Supporters
Friends of Forklift
Supported in part by
This project is supported in part by the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin Economic Development Department.
