Portable Restroom, Septic & Vac Truck Operators - Sanitation Stories

Hi my name is Arthur and I have a confession: I’ve inspected some pretty rad sewers in my life. Nothing builds humility and character quite like doing jobs that just gotta get done. It takes a brave few, and if you know, you know. I wanted to hear the stories of the hardworking operators out there that keep our world clean. The portable restroom operators, the septic operators, the vac truck operators, the people focused on bringing dignified sanitation to the world. I had a mic, a webcam, and a LinkedIn account, and with that, The Backbone podcast was born (start humble, stay hungry). Almost 1 year and 45 episodes later, the people I've met on this journey keep blowing me away. The scrappy, fearless entrepreneurs, the problem solvers, the misfits who blazed their own trail, the people who hustle evenings and weekends to support their families and build their dreams. These people make things happen. People who aren’t afraid of other people’s judgement, and show up because there’s a job that just needs to get done. My kind of people. If you don’t know me yet (hi!), here’s the quick origin story: My first co-op job as a naive, bright-eyed Guelph engineering student in 2009 was inspecting sewers in the Waterloo / Guelph area in Canada. There were concerns of too much rain water infiltrating through cracks and broken pipes, and it was our job to find where (talk about a needle in a haystack…). After graduating in 2012 I moved abroad and spent 2 years in Manchester in the UK, building computer models of their sewer systems to identify flood concerns and where pipes needed to be resized for increased demand. In 2014 returned back to my hometown of Toronto and worked on an extensive basement flooding remediation project. It was a wild experience working in neighbourhoods I grew up in and knowing I was helping to solve recurring flooding problems in my community. I kinda felt like Batman, but for the sewers (or does that make me a ninja turtle??). Around 2017 it was time for a change. I packed my bags and went travelling around the world to do some soul searching. 10-day silent meditation retreats, dog sitting, and several career changes later, from running a digital marketing agency to being a hypnotherapist (yeah that happened), my day job now is developing software to help businesses automate workflows and build systems that connect the dots and keep teams organized. In evenings & weekends I’m a podcast host, talking to sanitation operators about the grit and resilience it takes to run a business in this industry. It’s been a wild ride. If you’re a portable restroom or septic operator and you’ve got stories to share and life experience from the trenches, reach out, I want to hear your story. Best, Arthur