Stephen Bleach

4 days ago | thetimes.com | Stephen Bleach

2 weeks ago | thetimes.com | Stephen Bleach

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Stephen Bleach

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Stephen Bleach

1 month ago | thetimes.com | Stephen Bleach

Tony Spiezick's pep talk was not reassuring. "It's long days - you'll walk more than 12 miles," he told me. "It's smelly, it's dangerous, it's physically demanding. It's proper, old school hard graft. Thankless, too - people only notice you when things go wrong. And the rats - I've known crews to be literally dodging the rats as they fly through air."Three hours into my first shift as a Coventry binman, I'm starting to realise how right he was. I'm sweaty, I'm stressed, my arms ache, my feet hurt.