No matter how much recycling you do, there is always a certain amount of stuff you have to just throw away. While most of us never really give a second thought to what happens to our garbage once we put it on the street, this stuff has to be picked up and taken away by someone and something.

That’s where garbage trucks are an essential piece of kit for many municipalities around the world. Let’s watch some being made.

Step 1: Prepare the truck base
The first step, once a suitable truck base has been selected and sourced, is to begin to prepare the chassis for the garbage truck’s main rear dumpster. Mounting bars and other parts are welded to the main chassis, as well as, the main hydraulic lifting arm.

Angle grinders are used to clean up any welds. Other parts are also added like access ladders, etc, that will be used by the garbage truck operatives once the garbage truck is put into service.

Step 2: Make the main garbage dumpster
With that body ready, sheets of metal are then used and prepared to make the main dumpster for the garbage truck. Tubular steel bars are also cut down to size for incorporation into the dumpster as needed.

This is done using special cutting machines that can cut through steel with ease.

Industrial-sized lathes are also employed to cut and shape metal rods. To ensure consistency, the lathes are computer-controlled to make sure that the parts turned are the same every time.

For other parts of the garbage truck, a special computer-controlled plasma torch is used to cut out shapes from large sheets of steel. This is completely automated, by a human worker is often present to ensure the process is running as it should.

Read more: This is how garbage trucks are actually made