I ran a refuse fleet and recycling fleet for a local authority – and all i can say is joe public is a proper pain in the butt.These guys do a thousand properties upwards per day, run equivalent of a marathon a day, get paid crap, and treated like shiite. Some of them are difficult some of them are great just like evertwhere else – only difference is you see them every week. Beware these guys know what you had for breakfast, know what you get up to and can tell you your deepest darkest secrets!! Always worth a good tip at xmas.
Just as an example we had one guy who couldn't fit his rubbish on one bin – went and did an audit – turned out he lived on hampers from Harrods and didn't see why he should recycle!! Then there was the guy that recorded me and threatened to sue because we'd missed his bin for a week. God i hated Joe Public. Always hated the vocal minority!

the bin men where i used to live, in south manchester, were so lazy that if you hadn't put your bin the right way round at the edge of the kerb it wouldnt get emptied!

Round this way, the trucks are one-man operated: truck pulls up alongside the kerb, mechanical arm extends and dumps the wheely bin in the back through a whole in the roof. If the bin's not facing the right way, it won't dump properly. Are you sure that there were actually teams or was it just one guy?