Photo: Dan Berger Photography.

The folks over at Recology are over the moon at the fact that one of their own — Zac Ramsey, who has worked Arcata routes for more than 20 years — has been crowned as the nation’s Regional Residential Driver of the Year by the National Waste & Recycling Association.

The award was announced earlier this week.

“He is the first to lend a hand, the first with a great joke on a rough and cold Monday morning, and he has always loved his 6,000 customers like family,” according to testimony submitted by Linda Wise, a former general manager of local Recology operations.

Recology Humboldt’s current general manager, Frank Nelson, tells the Outpost that besides being an incredibly stand-up human, he enjoys the fact that Zac hauls trash from every home in Arcata, all by himself, making him an essential if sometimes anonymous part of the fabric of the city.

“He services all residential trash cans for every home in Arcata each week. He has a team that helps with Cal Poly, and his coworker Dan services recycling, but I just think it’s awesome that he dumps all those people’s homes, and nobody knows it’s just one dude.”

Ramsey will officially receive his award at a black-tie gala at Las Vegas’ Fontainebleau Resort in early May. Click here for tickets.

From Recology:

We’re so excited to share that Zac Ramsey, side-loader driver at Recology Arcata, has been awarded 2025 Driver of the Year by the National Waste & Recycling Association (NWRA) in the Regional Residential category!

The NWRA Driver of the Year awards recognize waste collection professionals for their commitment to safety, years of service, route difficulty, and community engagement. With more than 150,000 waste collection drivers nationwide and companies from every state competing, this is an incredible honor. 

Zac services the entire City of Arcata. He drives a side-loader, picking up about 1,000 totes a day. He has worked in the industry for 23 years.  
“Zac has dedicated his life to our industry,” says Linda Wise, former General Manager of Recology Humboldt County. “He places his customers’ needs and those of his team first.” 

Frank Nelson, General Manager of Recology Arcata, says Zac’s special bond with the people of the community was made apparent in the heartfelt letters many residents wrote in support of his Driver of The Year candidacy. When not at work, Zac helps coach youth baseball teams. 

Congratulations, Zac, and thank you for all that you do for your community!

The “Recology Chaser” YouTube channel contains an enormous amount of raw footage of Ramsey and his colleagues at work. The above video is sort of a compilation, we believe.