Cleaning and Clearing Up Jobs
With jobs where you’re cleaning or clearing up outside, you could be doing things like cleaning windows or collecting refuse. You’ll probably be working outside during all the seasons, so you’ll need to be able to cope with hot and cold weather.
Street Cleaner
Street cleaners keep roads and other areas clear of litter and rubbish. They empty bins from public places and clear streets with brushes and shovels. Some street cleaners use special cleaning machines, which sweep up and collect the rubbish.
Street cleaners may also work in parks brushing up leaves, twigs and litter. They may then take this to a waste disposal site.
Window Cleaner
Window cleaners wash and polish the windows of houses, offices and factories. They use equipment such as wash leathers, sponges and brushes.
Window cleaners reach high windows by using a ladder or a special cradle or platform, which is raised and lowered to the right height. Increasingly, they use water-fed poles which clean very high, with the cleaner working from the ground.
Window cleaners who clean house windows collect money from each householder when they have finished doing the windows. They are usually self-employed or work for a small firm.
Office blocks and other large buildings are usually cleaned by window cleaners who work for a large contract window cleaning company.
Refuse Collector
Refuse collectors take household rubbish and recycling away, and collect industrial waste. They collect rubbish including waste to be recycled from each house and put it into the back of a lorry.
They work in teams of two to five loaders, plus a driver of the lorry.
Loaders operate controls at the back of the lorry to flatten the rubbish, if it’s not for recycling.
Refuse collectors start work early in the morning and wear weatherproof clothing.