Mac: We're gonna solve the trash crisis!
Dee: All of this... I've heard all of this before. No?
Dee: All of this... I've heard all of this before. No?
The gang see an opportunity to make some quick cash when Philadelphia's trash collectors go on strike, with Mac, Dennis and Charlie using a limousine and charging a fee to collect trash from the rich while Frank and Dee try to undermine the union by getting the city's garbage contract. At the same time, Dee is convinced that everything they're doing feels a little too familiar.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- A Cappella: Mac, Dennis and Charlie form a barbershop trio and sing a cappella when they go door-to-door to avoid offending potential customers by speaking.
- Ambiguously Bi: Dennis claims that he would have had no trouble getting the contract for the trash collection from the gay councillor. He's also impressed when Dee says that the guy is a "twank versatile" and states that he wouldn't be able to satisy him.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Lampshaded at the end of the episode.Charlie: We give up way too easily! And then we just jump onto the next thing, that's insane!
- Banned Episode: It's one of five episodes of It's Always Sunny which is no longer available for online purchase or streaming due to its depiction of Blackface/Brownface.note
- Brownface: Dee once again browns up as Martina Martinez.
- Call-Back: Used constantly throughout the episode, given its central conceit of referencing previous jokes and plotlines. Some of the most notable examples:
- When Dennis, Dee and Mac are walking through the trash-filled alley at the beginning of the episode, Dennis repeats Charlie's "sad, throwaway culture" comment from "The Gang Finds a Dead Guy" and Mac throws away his soda cup the same way he did in "The Gang Finds a Dumpster Baby".
- Mac and Dennis claim that they don't vote because it's a choice between "the Reublican who's gonna blast us in the ass or the Democrat who's gonna blast us in the ass. Mac also repeats his "not gay sex" bit from "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis".
- Frank encourages Dee to dress as a "whore politician", and she wears the yellow pantsuit that she wore in "The Gang Gives Back". Dennis is willing to do the whore thing more than Dee is, but Frank tells him he needs a "lady whore".
- Mac and Charlie admit that they were planning on doing an accent.
- The corporate rep who Frank and Dee attempt to schmooze is the same guy who tried to buy Paddy's. Having learned from their mistakes, they take him to an all-male strip club this time, and Dee imitates Dennis's lecture on gay culture. The ending Stealth Hi/Bye by the rep is subverted this time, as Frank's holding him at gunpoint.
- Dee uses her Martina Martinez character to rile up the crowds at the trash collectors' strike.
- At the end of the episode, Mac, Dennis and Charlie decide to try their door-to-door gasoline selling scheme again, culminating in Charlie once again declaring himself the "wild card" and cutting the van's brakes.
- Clothing Damage: Frank and Dee get into a fight at the councillor's office which ends with them tearing each other's clothes.
- Cure Your Gays: Discussed; Dee suggests that the councillor is a "yestergay" when he isn't tempted by the male strippers, though she personally thinks a person's sexuality can't be changed. The councillor then confirms that he is, in fact, still gay.
- Door-to-Door Episode: Mac, Dennis and Charlie go door-to-door with a limousine in Philadelphia's rich neighborhoods, collecting trash for a fee.
- False Rape Accusation: Dee (in character as Martina) immediately starts screaming "rape" when the union rep tries to grab the mic back from her at the rally.
- Five-Man Band: Discussed once again.
- Here We Go Again!: Double Subverted. Dee comes up with a rug plan, and it looks like the episode is going to end with the Gang moving on to start a new scheme. Charlie, however, complains that the Gang always abandons their schemes. After ditching Charlie, the others decide to resume the trash plan. It's announced that the strike is over, which results in the Gang deciding to try Dee's rug scheme.
- Kiss Diss: Mac attempts to kiss Dennis in a moment of excitement, only for Dennis to pull away.
- Lampshade Hanging: Dee repeatedly mentions that everything that happens in the episode feels vaguely familiar, but goes ignored by the rest of the gang.
- Look Behind You: When Dee realizes she's losing the crowd at the protest, she distracts them by pointing at the three "rich men" in tuxedos dumping trash outside the poor neighborhood — not realizing that it's Dennis, Mac and Charlie and she's just sicced an angry mob on them.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: Averted, as the gang try to recycle one of their old plans while putting into practice everything they learned from their past mistakes to improve it. They still end up failing.
- Not Listening to Me, Are You?: Mac and Dennis realize that Charlie has tuned out when they're in the middle of lecturing him on why they don't need a wild card.Dennis: Is he listening to us? I can't tell.
Mac: He's listening. He's not understanding...
Charlie: Yeah, he doesn't even, like, get us, man.
Dennis: We're talking about you! - Oh, Crap!: Dennis, Mac and Charlie on realizing that the angry mob of trash collectors is headed straight for them.Dennis: Something bad's about to happen to somebody!
(all laugh, then look around and realize that they're the only people in sight)
Charlie: ...Is it us?
Dennis: Yep. - Only Sane Man: Dennis plays this role in his sub-group with Charlie and Mac, talking the other two out of doing any accents and confiscating knives from them before they're unleashed on the general public.
- Ping Pong Naïveté: Mac is all in favor of dumping garbage in poor neighborhoods because, in his mind, they must enjoy it, since they choose to be poor. In episodes like "The Great Recession", and "Mac and Charlie: White Trash", Mac is poor, and knows it.
- Rousing Speech: Dee as Martina gives one to the striking trash collectors. Unfortunately it works a little too well as, per Charlie, she ends up inciting a "race riot".
- Self-Deprecation: The Double-Meaning Title: while the episode does involve the Gang trying to take advantage of a garbage strike, the episode is mostly comprised of reusing plot points and character devices from past episodes, meaning the writers are "recycling their trash".
- Sequel Episode: To "The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis".
- A Simple Plan: Said by Frank at the beginning of the episode.
- Sharp-Dressed Man: The guys all wear tuxedos for their upscale trash collection gig. Predictably, they all end up covered in trash (and in Mac's case, bird crap) by the end of the episode.
- Shout-Out: The Ghostbusters theme plays as the gang head out in their van again.
- Frank's attempt to rile up the striking garbagemen might be a reference to Hoffa, which would be yet another recycled gag, as the show had previously performed a Danny DeVito-oriented Shout-Out to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
- Slobs vs. Snobs: Subverted. The strikers think they're attacking rich elites who are disrespecting their working-class neighborhood by dumping trash in it. In reality, they're attacking three men putting on airs and who are trying to make money off the strike.
- Show Some Leg: Frank tries to get Dee to do this until they realize that the councilor is gay.
- Trash of the Titans: Thanks to the strike, the bar is generating so much trash that there's no longer any room for it in the alley and it's just being piled up inside.
- Why We Need Garbagemen: As mentioned under Trash of the Titans, trash is piling up due to a garbage strike.
