Steve Savage can easily say his job stinks.
Literally.
For the past three months he has been operating Stinky Steve’s Septic and Grease, a company that cleans septic tanks and commercial grease traps.
“At first it’s hard to stomach the smell, but after a couple of months you get used to it,” he said.
Savage is not new to the odorous industry, having worked for about two years for another such company before starting his own.
His friends had nicknamed him Stinky Steve, which provided the perfect name for his new business.
“Even though it’s a stinky job and it’s nasty, I don’t mind it,” he said.
Savage uses a bright orange truck with a green hose that hooks up to a 2000-gallon tank.
“It’s basically a big vacuum cleaner on wheels and we vacuum the stuff up and dispose of it properly at the landfill,” he said.
He says the smelliest job he ever had was cleaning a convenience store grease trap, which in addition to old cooking grease contained gallons of spoiled rotten milk.
“Septic tanks don’t seem to bother me very much,” he said, but added that digging in the hard-packed dry earth to locate the septic tank can be “backbreaking.”
It’s a job, and Savage deals with it using lots of hand sanitizer and humor. The slogan “We’re #1 with your #2!” proudly decorates his website and facebook page.
“You just have to make the best of it and go on,” he said. “I look on it as a blessing, a new chapter.”