Trash team collects tons of Sturgis Rally garbage - KOTA Territory News

Trash team collects tons of Sturgis Rally garbage

During the month surrounding the Rally, Sturgis sanitation workers remove more than 500 tons of trash from the streets.

But how do they do it without disrupting the bikers?

"First crew comes in at 2 and they shoot right down Main Street," said Sturgis sanitation supervisor Jay Johnson.
 
That's 2 a.m., by the way, which apparently exists.

Trash starts flying as the team tosses can after can into the truck's metal arms. A second wave follows with leaf-blowers to clear sidewalks, and a street sweeper brings up the rear.
 
"Now we've kind of got it down to kind of an art or a science," Johnson said, "and everything clicks pretty good."

"Most everything downtown is pretty well buttoned up by 7," he added. (Again, that's a.m.)

That generally means dozens of tons of trash every night of the Rally.
 
"We're probably hauling four trucks, at least four trucks a day and they're averaging 10 ton," he said.
 
Ten tons per truck. That amounted to almost 29 tons on Monday morning -- before the Rally had even officially started.
 
"It's all basically the same one year after another," which means collection will likely pick up as the Rally drags on, Johnson said.

Last year's peak was more than 50 tons on Tuesday.
 
"All in a day's work."
 
Plus, they have to haul all that garbage to a facility in Belle Fourche.
 
"Come back and do it again tomorrow."
 
Same routine, same ungodly hours.
 
"It will be over sooner or later," Johnson said with a 7-a.m.-induced laugh.

Including the two weeks leading up to this year's Rally, crews have already hauled away more than 224 tons of trash, about three tons more than this time last year.