Trashed, by Derf Backderf (comics or graphic novel)

I haven't posted here since March and frankly, I am not sure I've read anything between then and now. I'd like to think so but I cannot confirm or deny with any accuracy. 

I was at Housing Works in South Slope where there were a ton of graphic novels and comics for sale. It looks like someone donated half their comics bookcase. I had wanted to read Trashed and and there it was, for a mere $6. 

My assumption was that it would be:

- well drawn (I like his comics style a lot)

- a series of all the crap you have to endure when you are working trash collection

- grossly funny

And it was. But it was more of a narrative that walked you through trash collection season after season. The narrative included more serious information about work culture (ah, municipal agencies) -- nepotism, salaried vs hourly employees and who did the grunt jobs. 

The real surprise for me was all of the information on the USA's trash management. So not expected! I know a lot of this information already from news articles, zero waste blogs, etc but they all have a very activist bent. It was interesting to read this information from someone who is clearly interested -- but doesn't have an activist perspective (which usually focuses on personal responsibility, in my experience) in dealing with it. 

The stories themselves were less "wow look at that insane gross or wacky thing you found in the trash!" than day-to-day trash pickup and enduring that. (Though cans of maggots and picking up roadkill feature prominently in some of the stories.) I was looking forward to the wacky stuff people leave out more than it was included but you definitely get some. 

The post-script features some information on Jeffery Dahmer, who was a high school friend of the author and who he wrote My Friend Dahmer about. Backderf and Dahmer lived same town growing up. Backderf collected trash there. And Dahmer was known to dispose of at least one of his victims in trash bags. Derf was asked whether his trash collection and Dahmer's killings overlapped and apparently he stopped collecting trash before Dahmer started murdering. So assumedly he never picked up trash bags filled with Dahmer's victims as part of his job. Good to know!