It shouldn’t come as a surprise in this day and age but it does, a little.

To these men, doing the job that most of us would refuse is just a means to an end.

There’s always something. This morning, as if the scorching heat and the foul stench filling the back lane was not bad enough, the garbage crew have just accidentally tipped a dumpster on its side while maneuvering it to their truck past badly parked cars.

Its load of food leftovers and other waste now lies in a heap in the street.

The crew, two of whom wear spectacles and could be mistaken for city financiers, is Ismail Ahmad, Nor Hamdan Mat and Mohd Asri Yusoff and their job just got that much harder and more unpleasant. No surprise there.

They sigh in unison, stare briefly at the mess, wrestle the heavy dumpster upright again, then grab rakes and shovels, and set to clearing up the already decaying restaurant waste before traffic spreads it everywhere.

For the three Alam Flora men it’s just another day in their “office”: the streets of Kuala Lumpur.

With a population of 1.7 million, and thousands of offices, restaurants, shops and homes, the city produces huge mountains of trash every day.

All of it must be carted away twice a day before it goes rancid in the tropical heat.

The crew’s job is made more complicated by people with no social conscience tossing cigarette butts, empty beer cans and all manner of other trash straight onto the road.

Restaurants toss out food without bagging it, delighting neighborhood rodents and other toxic pests.

The environmental management company they work for calls its street employees general workers. Hardly a descriptive or flattering title.

The job is not just hoisting and emptying overflowing dumpsters. Any rubbish within a 3-metre radius of a dumpster or bin needs to be picked up and taken away – by them.

Aside from collecting garbage, there’s also street and drain cleaning, and disposing of animal carcasses decaying by the road.

Asri drives the garbage truck, gingerly inching through the city’s narrow lanes. But he isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty too, clambering down from his lofty perch to help out his mates when they need it.

Another crew member, 59-year-old Ismail, says he is used to starting work at 5.30 am before most people are even awake, and then it’s 8 hours of dirty, difficult and exhausting work.

“Sometimes I fall asleep before the evening news comes on, but maybe that’s because I’m older now,” said the father of four.

Despite his small-frame, Ismail packs a lot of muscle under his red, long-sleeved uniform, for like his colleagues, he’s heavy lifting from start to end of shift.

But the family-man from Kerinchi isn’t complaining.

Being a binman is a means of providing for his family and ensuring his children get the best education he can provide.

“Three of my children have gone to university,” he says with a proud smile.

Another crew member, Hamdan, says he joined Alam Flora nearly 20 years ago. To him, the exact nature of the work has always been unimportant as the company offers a stable job with good benefits and has enabled him to send both of his children to university.

He knows many people would not want to do what he does for a living, but he doesn’t see a problem with it.

“This work isn’t so bad, and it’s not an undignified job; it’s still halal income.”

Few people thank them for their efforts. But that’s okay.

Watching their children graduate from university and knowing that they have a brighter future is all that these street warriors really need.