Talkin’ trash with worker Keoni Rosario

John "Keoni" Rosario IV appreciates that his career offers job security.

Who: John "Keoni" Rosario IV Title: Heavy-equipment operator Job: Operates heavy equipment at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill

Rosario is a heavy-equipment operator for Waste Management Inc. at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei, and, as he remarked last week, "Rubbish is never ending."

His employer, in fact, takes in up to 1,000 tons of garbage a day at the 200-acre West Oahu location, which it operates on behalf of the City & County of Honolulu. It also operates landfills for the counties on the Big Island and Kauai, where the daily intakes at those sites are, respectively, about 360 tons and 230 tons.

Rosario's job at the Oahu landfill is to operate the various types of heavy equipment that are needed to move, compact and bury the trash that gets deposited there daily by the city's trash haulers, private garbage companies and individuals. The landfill also takes in ash from H-POWER and sludge from the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant.

In a sense, Rosario is carrying on the work of his father, John, who worked at the landfill as a heavy-equipment operator for 17 years until he died a year ago this month, at age 61. He helped Keoni get a job at the landfill, and taught him how to operate some of the equipment.

Keoni said his family - including his mother, Jo Ann, and his five brothers and one sister - will be having a memorial party soon to mark the death of his father, whom he called a "real hero" for his years of hard work on behalf of his family.

Keoni Rosario, 34, is a graduate of Waianae High School. He is married to the former Angie Dacoscos, with whom he has six children - of which five were brought into the marriage by her and one by him. They reside in Ewa Beach.

Mark Coleman: What is your work title?

Keoni Rosario IV: I'm a heavy-equipment operator for Waste Management Inc.

Q: What kinds of heavy equipment do you operate?

A: Gee. ... We have a number of different ones: 'dozers, loaders, excavators; we have huge dump trucks; and we have a huge compactor.

Q: And you can work on all of those?

A: Yeah, we've been trained on all of them, yeah.

Q: Besides you, are there other heavy-equipment operators at the landfill?

A: Yeah, we got a handful of guys out here.

Q: What other kinds of jobs do they have out there?

A: Well, we have team of engineers who help us also. We have two laborers also. And we have compliance specialists.

Q: Who are they?

A: They work with Waste Management.

Q: Compliance with what?

A: With what we do here. We keep in compliance because we're also monitored by regulatory agencies.

Q: What do the laborers do?

A: They pick up trash, and do a lot of the odd jobs that need to be done

Q: Is Waimanalo Gulch a seven-days-a-week operation?

A: Yes. We're open seven days a week.

Q: What are your days and hours?

A: I usually work Monday through Saturday, and it depends when I start. Average time is from 6:30 (a.m.) to 5:30 (p.m.). Then we have a rotating day-off schedule that we have here.

Q: So you're six days a week?

A: Sometimes. Not all the times. When we get busy, we gotta get going.

Q: How much trash comes into the landfill each day?

A: On average, I'd say 800 to a thousand tons - around there.

Q: So what are you doing, basically, with the garbage that comes in - covering it up with dirt? Pushing it into a big hole?

A: Well, actually, we have a 'dozer that pushes the rubbish into a hole, and then we have trash compactor that smashes the rubbish up into thin layers. And we basically continue that process until we reach a certain height, and then at the end of the day, we cover all the trash with at least 6 inches of dirt.

Q: That goes on every day?

A: Yeah.

Q: I hear you're a second-generation worker at the landfill.

A: Yeah, I sure am.

Q: It was your dad, right?

A: Yeah. My dad actually helped me to get this job, back in 1993, I think it was.

Q: What was his name, and how long did he work there?

A: John Rosario. He taught me a lot about equipment. My dad was here, I think, maybe, I wanna say 17 years, maybe. He passed away Sept. 18, last year, 2007. The anniversary is coming up. I got to work with my dad 14 years. He worked hard all his life, and he never did get to retire. Really, my dad is the real hero, because he sacrificed for his children. I guess you don't know about things like that until you're a parent yourself.

Q: You got kids?

A: Yeah. I got a bunch of kids. (Laughter)

Q: Is it your dad who taught you how to operate the equipment?

A: A lot of them, yes. He was mainly the loader operator here.

Q: How did you learn to operate the rest of it?

A: Basically on-the-job training. The senior operators would teach me what they knew and watch me step by step.

Q: Have you had the same job with Waste Management since you started there?

A: I actually started out as a laborer also. I was a laborer for about, I'd say, a year and a half.

Q: And then what happened?

A: I think one guy left, and then an operator position opened up, and then I was able to get my shot at operating.

Q: Who maintains your vehicles?

A: We do

Q: So you're a mechanic, too?

A: No, no. We have mechanics here who upkeep the machines.

Q: How big is Waimanalo Gulch anyway?

A: The landfill itself, I think it's just under a hundred acres. (The total site is about 200 acres.)

Q: You can see the Ihilani resort from were you work, can't you, because you're up on the hill?

A: Yep.

Q: Are you working on steep-grade roads at all?

A: Nope.

Q: What is the progression of your workday? What do you start out doing first, and how does it end?

A: Gee. ... On an average day, I'll come in about 6 o'clock, I'll get ready, and I'm out on my machine by 6:30. Basically just check all the fluids, the oil levels and all that. Check out the machines. Prior to that we have a team meeting - we call it a tailgate meeting - where we talk about what is the plan for the day.

Q: And then what?

A: I'm mainly just pushing rubbish all day. (Laughter) That's what I'm doing.

Q: Is there any safety gear that you have to wear, like goggles or breathing masks?

A: Our cabs are AC'd (air conditioned), so they're pretty good. They're filtered out, so it's not too bad. It's actually good.

Q: What about listening to music or the radio while you're working - are you allowed to do that?

A: I think about three of the machines have radios inside of them, so we're able to listen to them, but we keep them down because we have walkie-talkies and we need to hear those when we're working.

Q: What's your favorite part of the job? Do you have one?

A: Favorite part of the job? I wanna say 4:30, when I'm ready to go home and be with my family, but I'm not sure I should say that. (Laughter)

But actually I like it when we're busy. I really do. It's like an adrenaline thing.

Q: Is there anything you don't like about the job?

A: I enjoy what I do, or I wouldn't be here. Really. It's kind of good for me. I can't say that there's anything I don't really like.

Q: Have you ever thought of taking your heavy-equipment-operating skills elsewhere, like into construction or something?

A: I thought about it, but, that's about it.

Q: You seem to have a good deal going at work.

A: Yeah. Rubbish is never ending. We've never been laid off. It's nonstop.