English/American slang for Garbage, Garbage truck/collector ?

Question

Hi everyone, I m french and currently working on a project for which I m searching synonyms for "Garbages", "Garbage truck", "Garbage collector" ( or Dustman ? I don t know the correct words ).
Ideally I would like to find some commonly used, slang words, but nothing vulgar.
For example for garbage, we can say Junk, trash, etc... what words do you think are the more commonly used in day to day life ( for things like a can of soda, a piece of paper, etc, you would find in the street for example ) ? Are there any one-word synonyms for garbage truck/collector ?
Those are not the kind of words we often learn in english class :)
Thank you !

Answer 1

Synonyms For Garbage

Answer 2

In England we tend to call it rubbish rather than garbage, which is more common in America. As we put our rubbish in bins, which long ago used to be filled with ashes from the fire, when most people had coal fires and not central heating, and thus known as as 'dustbins', we call the collectors 'Binmen' or 'Dustbinmen'. The truck they drive is called a 'binwagon'.

Answer 3

We call them 'bin men', North West England here.

There are lots of words for them but I don't think they're actually 'slang' words, there are many regional terms (colloquialisms) for something which there is no worldwide convention on what to call them.

Dustman is a valid word, but it is very old fashioned.

Answer 4

In the USA it is the garbage man.



In the UK, garbage is organic material whereas rubbish is all waste.



Technically, in the USA, garbage is organic (food) materials (except for paper products), trash is combustible inorganic material and paper products, and rubbish is any waste thrown out.

Answer 5

In Britain they are generally "Refuse Collectors", or similar with reference to "refuse". They are still informally called "dustmen" by people of my older generation, and others call them "binmen". We do not really use the word "garbage" in Britain, except in connection with IT - "garbage in, garbage out".



To me a "sanitation engineer" might be someone who deals with lavatories and drains and sewers.

Answer 6

Trash, waste, rubbish, scrap

Trash truck, rubbish truck

Answer 7

In the U.S. garbageman



Items like cans and paper go to a recycling center

Answer 8

I am in Scotland - The bin man, Can of coke, can of pepsi, bit of paper

Answer 9

Thank you all for your answers, it will be very helpful :)

Answer 10

sanitation engineer.