CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — You might remember Jaxon Hancock from when we reported on him last week. He’s the 8 year old boy who’s picking up trash to clean up his community. He said his dream profession is a garbage man. On Saturday, he got to live his dream as a garbage man for the day.
The City of Corpus Christi reached out to him to join the Corpus Christi Solid Waste Disposal so he can learn about what it’s like to be a garbage man.
So, why does Jaxon want to be a garbage man?
“It helps the community and the community workers pick up trash while they work,” he said.
He got the opportunity to ride around in the Solid Waste Disposal’s trash truck and was joined by 11-year-old Zackary Gonzalez, who reached out to the City of Corpus Christi about a year ago to see what he could do to recycle in his community. Zackary said he also wants to work with the Solid Waste Department.
“The landfills are all going to fill up super quickly if you don’t recycle and landfills are important because they take away all the trash instead of it just blowing around all over the city,” he said.
Javier Molina is a sanitation operator for the City of Corpus Christi and taught Jaxon and Zackary about safety like the importance of inspecting the truck before riding it.
Like Jaxon, Molina said he knew he wanted to work in the trash industry since he was a kid, but it started out as a joke.
“You know how they ask you kids…what do you want to be? Some kids said a cop, some doctor, and then I said hey, I want to be a trash man. At the time it was a joke but when I was actually behind the wheel it dawned on me…wait a minute…but I enjoy it,” Molina said.
Jaxon and Zackary also got to tour the Cefe Valenzuela Landfill in Robstown, learning about the importance of bulldozers in the landfill process and that the landfill they were standing on is covered by liners and soil.
While touring, Jaxon had a change of heart, and decided he wanted to work at the landfill instead.
“I want to be a landfill worker because they work hard and that they help the community,” he said.
Through trash, they also discovered a treasure: both of them saying they found a new friend in each other.
