My name is Ab Benaskar, I am 38 years old, I am married and have two children and I live in Utrecht.

I have been working at the Waste Collection Service for a year now. I am responsible for the two following districts, the Utrecht region and the North Holland region. The nice thing about my job is that I meet new people every day and that makes my work very enjoyable. Ultimately, my job is to ensure that the customer gets rid of his or her waste. Fortunately, that always works. And we often even come by the same day to collect the waste from the customer.

I visit companies and private customers every day, and business customers are increasingly becoming better at finding us. But also just the sober student who is moving, and I ensure that he or she is relieved by taking the waste with him.

One day I clean up a customer’s entire garden, and then a few hours later I pick up a refrigerator from a customer. That makes it so diverse and extra fun. The word waste can be used very broadly, but that does not mean that we actually throw away the waste we have collected from the customer or take it to the waste processor. Fortunately, in most cases the collected waste is given a second life. I mainly work with thrift stores and small foundations in the city of Utrecht. Unfortunately, there is a growing group that cannot afford a washing machine or dryer if it breaks down. I regularly come across usable washing machine(s) or dryers, and by donating them to the foundation, they ultimately end up with the people who need them most.