"Waste" in 2 [synopsis]
When Charles Dufant became a trash truck driver, he felt he had found the lowest title he could find to keep his life stable. Pay that put him in the upper middle class as a rookie driver, Chuck was finally beginning to feel comfortable with his newly found urban life. People threw away the damndest things… stereos, televisions, computers, antique furniture, artwork, hell this was going to make his new pad pimped out in a very big way. He could stand all the “What’s up Chuck?” jokes about the griminess of his position and the snide looks from the uptight walkers who couldn’t stand to see their own trash being handled for fear of the rap. This was going to be all right.
Little did he know what was to come. He begins to notice that his route includes territory that is being handled by local thugs, who are very up front about their expectation of pay in return for protection. Hailing from small town, Iowa, Charles isn’t accustomed to anything but the wind turbines causing this kind of pollution and disturbance. These guys feed the local seagull’s antacid tablets every morning as they gather around for morning coffee just to watch and laugh as they puff up and die. They are hard core hardened thugs whose only interest in the days takes, and what of it will make it on the books, and what of it they will take home to their wives and mistresses.
When he moves district in Los Angeles, he finds that his life is in danger. Now working deeper into the streets that see the actual back alley action those white collar dollar earning heat makers create with their side businesses of smuggling and delivery knock over payouts on non paying shopkeepers, Charles is getting worried. These fools are approaching him on a daily basis trying to negotiate some kind of relationship that is coming off more and more forced as if something very deadly is coming. He notices a local renowned hit man, Tutlie Snipes in the early morning dew packing a piece very openly stalking a beat down corner crack dealer, and he begins to get scared.
Finally, the situation becomes all too clear. Large payouts are being forced on him to ignore the dumping of mob and gang murder victims being laid to waste in his routes dumpsters. Every week he is expected to accept tribute in exchange for ignoring the contents of his truck as it pulls away from another unlucky customer’s almost final resting place. He is forced to avoid dump heavy equipment operators situating the trash to accept his loads, for fear of a John or Jane Doe popping out in front of them. At night, he dreams of faceless victims being stacked in his waiting receptacles, their graves left empty for those who would grieve. The worst of it all comes when Tutlie is actually present and finishing the job one morning as he makes his pickup. From the look on the man’s face, and his demeanor, Charles knows his only payment is that he remains alive.
When a body is observed being removed by a passing beat cop, he gets the heat turned up on him to help with the recent spree of neighborhood gangland slayings and disappearances, or catch a charge as a co- conspirator. The beat cop came up on him as he was closing the back, and this poor unfortunate fellows arm just happened to be dangling out. With the recent upswing of neighborhood disappearances of some very key local players, there is no denying that the heat has been on Chuck for quite some time. He confesses his unwilling involvement, and prays that he will make it through to the end of this nightmare both free and alive. Still afraid of fingering Tutlie, Charles keeps this one tidbit of information to himself, assuaging that the investigation has gotten enough out of him to turn the tide. He doesn’t need a hit man hunting him too.
As his route cools down, he is forced to identify dates and dump locations within the landfill where the victim’s remains may be amongst the trash. Homicide Detective Ranger and his team’s forensics expert Corrine Finland begin a systematic examination of the timeline of landfill deliveries made by Charles truck, trying to find the bodies of the missing victims. What they uncover is a gruesome mess of partly decomposed, nearly unrecognizable victims whose identification and evidence gathering processes have them all wondering what the big “What’s up Chuck?” joke was about to begin with.
As the digging through the dirt delves deeper, Chuck finds himself stuck holding a buck and a truck load of muck he can barely handle. The heat is not off of him from either the authorities or the local muscle, and he is considering a one way plane ticket out of town. He steels himself, convinced that the wheels of justice will prevail and ultimately free both him and his life of this entanglement, and wearily continues his route. Then in the early morning hours, a local made man, Sal The Sicilian approaches him, and tells him to beware, that Tutlie is on the loose, and doing jobs he wasn’t asked to. This night, Charles buys his plane ticket back home, but cannot get a booking on his budget with his pay freeze due to the investigation until the following week.
In the early morning hours it all comes to a head when he witnesses a murder firsthand. As he endeavors to pin the toe tag on the killer and get it off his own, he finds his life as a trash truck driver has turned out to be far from simple. It has turned into hands on handling of the worst kind. Tutlie is gunning down a local prostitute in the alley when Charles pulls up. With an instinctual reaction to save his life, and the life of the poor girl, he runs down Tutlie to the dead end of the alley. As Tutlie takes aim, sneering that Charles hasn’t the balls to finish the job; Chuck puts it in drive and slams him, pinned between the truck and the wall, cutting him neatly in half.
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