The first of three short films produced by the workers of the Sheffield Cleansing Department with the support of the Sheffield Media Unit as part of a 'Keep Sheffield Tidy' campaign to show people what the department does other than just empty their bins. Title: Sheffield Cleansing Department. Working for a Better City. “Talkin’ About Me Mate” Over the opening title a pen and ink drawing of a pair of eyes sticking out of a dustbin followed by the artist rendering the image. A...

The first of three short films produced by the workers of the Sheffield Cleansing Department with the support of the Sheffield Media Unit as part of a 'Keep Sheffield Tidy' campaign to show people what the department does other than just empty their bins. Title: Sheffield Cleansing Department. Working for a Better City. “Talkin’ About Me Mate” Over the opening title a pen and ink drawing of a pair of eyes sticking out of a dustbin followed by the artist rendering the image. A man walks along a busy Sheffield city centre shopping precinct, he kicks a can while singing the Lonnie Donegan hit ‘My Old Man’s a Dustman’. Having asked the question ‘what do dustmen do?’ a montage follows featuring members of Sheffield Cleansing Department each respond with ‘Talkin’ About Me Mate’. One of the council workers featured in the montage appears alongside the man, they walk away arriving at a house belonging to the man. They walk along a snow-covered path leading to a gate, the council work complains that it is locked so can’t get to his bins. He then points out to the man the condition of his bins two of which are overflowing with rubbish with additional items, including a mattress, nearby which won’t get into a bin lorry. The council worker explains to the man what he can do. Back in the city centre the two men walk along the shopping precinct. The man kicks some rubbish in the street and a street sweeper appears to sweep it up. He talks to the two men about the various other jobs the Cleansing Department does. A gully machine clears a drain changing to an amenities sweeping crew sweeping the pavement outside a residential shopping parade. One of the crew empties a street litter bin into a nearby council lorry while his colleagues continue to sweep the road and pavement. A vag-brush machine drives along a road cleaning the curb side and verges. At a bus stop two men use mops to soap the stand itself as well as its windows while a third rinses it all down with a water hose. A road sign for a public toilet changes to a woman standing in the doorway of a convenience. She helps a young mother get her pushchair into a baby changing room followed by her assisting a wheelchair user into the disabled toilet. Due to vandalism several closed toilet cubicle and graffiti damaged doors. A man stands in the doorway of a building, beside him a full bin and a bag with lettering across it reading ‘Broken Glass is Dangerous Please Wrap’. Back in the city centre a member of the Trade Waste Section collects and empties a paladin bin containing commercial waste into the back of a nearby bin lorry. Still images showing the new style Euro-bin. Two skip lorries drive past heading towards a council facility changes to a still image promoting the councils mini-skip hire. Back in the city centre the man speaks with the street sweeper asking who looks after your vehicles. At the council depot a mechanic looks over the axil of a lorry followed by general views of the depot and vehicles currently being looked over. Two men work to put up a large poster for an ‘Open Day’ changes to a lorry unloading unwanted furniture at the cities landfill site. The bucket on the front of a wheel loader moves the rubbish around the site compacting it with its special grooved wheels. At the Bernard Road Incinerator plant a bin lorry arrives, reverses, and dumps its waste alongside rubbish from other lorries unloading there. A large mechanical claw descends and picks up a load of rubbish dropping it onto a conveyor. In the control room two men watch over the incinerator process changes to the Park Hill estate where the heat from the incinerator is pumped. Back in the city centre the man asks the street sweeper what’s the point if people keep dropping their rubbish. The feet of a man who walks past dropping a piece of rubbish, someone else picks it up. A logo on the side of a bin lorry features the image of a devil with a piece of rubbish attached to his pitchfork, the slogan’ keep Sheffield clean’. A group of school children visit the council depot and are shown around a rubbish lorry, several children sit in the driving seat. The children stand around a woman who talks to them about the work of the Cleansing Department does. Examples of art works produced by pupils Halfway First School about the problems caused by litter. The film ends back in the city centre with the man now knowledgeable about what Sheffield Cleansing Department does. As he walks away, he begins to sing My Old Man’s a Dustman’, but this time accompanied by them men who work in the Cleansing department. Title: “Talkin’ About Me Mate” End credit: Made by the workers of the Sheffield Cleansing Department with the Sheffield Media Unit