"As a worker, April Stanton is right up there at the top," said her boss, John Tognazzi, operations manager for Hiltz Waste Removal Co. on Kondelin Road.
The 28-year-old Stanton, of Rockport, drives one of Hiltz's brand new, shiny red and white Gloucester-area dual-stream recycling trucks. Her role in a male-dominated field, plus her hard work, speediness, enthusiasm, courtesy and driving skill have earned her the respect of her co-workers and the people she serves.
"I have been with Hiltz 41รขÑ2 years. I was a heavy equipment operator in the Army Reserves," Stanton explained. "After the Army, I wanted to drive a dump truck, and the Hiltz company needed a laborer. I started off working the side (of a recycling truck) and then became a driver in the Manchester-by-the-Sea, Hamilton, Wenham area once I got my Class B with air brakes license."
After winning the Gloucester contract for trash disposal and recyclables last summer, Hiltz re-assigned her.
"Gloucester is my route," Stanton said. "I know the route now like the back of my hand."
Stanton and her assistant, Brendan Chipperini of Gloucester, generally collect recyclables Monday through Friday and occasionally on Saturdays when a holiday pushes up the recycling days.
"I get up at 5 a.m. and try to be there (at the company headquarters) by 6," she said. "We have to start collecting by 7 a.m. At first, I had to get up at 4 a.m. and drive my truck to Cambridge and off-load it and then start the route. Now, there's a guy at Hiltz that dumps (drives them to Cambridge and unloads them) the trucks."
Her truck usually has the capacity, especially during the cooler temperature months, to collect each of her routes' recyclables in one load.
Stanton's Thursday route from Holly Street to Folly Cove is her longest, involving hundreds of stops and frequent back-ups on long, narrow roads.
"We try to finish by 2 p.m. Lately, we have been slamming it," Stanton said. "Our goal is to get out there, get the recyclables on and get out. It's a lot of physical work. I don't have to go to the gym.
"Brendan was also in the Army," she noted.
"The Army trained us how to work fast," said Chipperini.
Stanton explained that there are two recycling trucks on the road for the day's route. If one finishes its part of the route before the other, then that truck will help the other out.
She said likes the city's new weekly recycling program that began last summer.
"It (the load) would be doubled up, otherwise," she said. "Plus, it gives me a job."
Neither weather, nor traffic, nor sometimes dirty recyclables bother Stanton and Chipperini on the job.
"We are out there no matter what the weather — minus 10 degrees, snow or pouring rain," Stanton said. "Being dirty — that comes with the job. You get used to the traffic and cars sometimes going by you at 60 mph. You focus on your job and block everything else out.
"As a driver," she said, "you have to always pay attention to a lot of things."
One thing Stanton and Chipperini have to look forward to on the job, especially when the weather isn't hospitable, is "... a brand new truck that's very comfortable," she explained.
"The drivers all wash their own trucks; she takes really good care of her truck," said operations chief Tognazzi.
"We get yelled at almost every day. We're always somewhere where somebody else wants to be. If they would only realize we move quickly," Stanton said.
Despite the yelling, however, Stanton said she enjoys most people and dog interactions along her route.
"I carry treats for the dogs," she said.
Stanton also likes the people that she works with and for.
"It's like my family up there (at Hiltz's headquarters)," she said. "I love all those guys."
Chipperini described how he and his workers feel toward Stanton.
"She outdoes the boys," he said, and don't worry, it seems April can deal with "the boys" just fine.
Gloucester lobsterman Peter K. Prybot writes weekly for the Times, usually about the fishing industry and related issues.
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