Each time she finished a shift investigating internet crimes against children, Deputy Tanya Joy cleansed herself with a ritual and a prayer.

“I broke a branch off the tree right next to the office,” Joy says. “I would break that branch, and I would say, ‘Jesus: If anything evil is attached to me, I break that in your name.’ And I would go home.”

The mother of five wanted to protect her children and husband, Jonathan Joy, from the ugliness and horror of the pictures, words and videos she witnessed during the two years she worked on the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force with the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office.

Ironically, it was a completely different kind of video – of a machine that washes garbage bins – that jump-started the next chapter of Joy’s effort to cleanse the world around her.

The Joys watched the video together, and for Tanya, it was love at first sight. “I want to do that business and put everything that I have saved into that business," she told her incredulous husband.

She did, and her husband helped.

“He has great business acumen,” she says. “My family has truly supported me. It was a crazy kind of thing. But they understood my personal drive behind the mission.”

Joy founded Palmetto Can Cleaning in 2018.

The company’s custom-built trucks resemble those used by the City of Greenville Solid Waste Division. Hydraulic lifts raise empty, residential garbage bins onto the rear of the truck. Once they are upside down in the rear hopper, the cans are cleaned by a rotating nozzle that sprays 200-degree pressurized water. The outside of the can is also pressure washed.

The trucks carry a tank of clean water for washing, and a separate tank holds the dirty water until it can be disposed of properly.

No chemicals are used.

“It's the 200-degree hot water that kills the bacteria, germs, and – most of all – smell,” Joy explains.

After much research, Joy chose Sparkling Bins in Miami to build her truck. But picking a paint color sparked a debate among Joy, her husband, and John Conway of Sparkling Bins.

“I came from Miami. A Hispanic woman marrying into a Southern farming family ... I love my bright colors,” says Joy, who is known at the Sheriff’s Office for her orange nail polish and red lipstick.

“I wanted the truck to be bright orange.”

Her husband suggested that florescent orange might seem garish in South Carolina, while Conway explained that the trucks and trailer beds had always been painted black.

Not only did Joy win the argument, but she ignited a change at Sparkling Bins, where trucks are now routinely painted with bright colors.

Palmetto Can Cleaning’s first customer was Joy’s lieutenant on the task force. He wanted his trash can cleaned as a Valentine’s Day present for his wife.

“It was great,” Joy says. “They had this trash can for eight years and never washed it. It was awful. I popped it up and cleaned it. After it was clean, she said, ‘Sign me up. I want this service every month.’”

The company motto is: “It’s a service that you can see and smell.”

“That’s where your money should be going, to something that has value, that improves your life,” Joy says.

The company now has two trucks, four employees, an administrative assistant, and services about 1,000 customers per month – including a community for elderly and disabled people where trash receptacles are kept inside their condominiums.

“They were so thankful for our service,” Joy says. “I want our customers to be satisfied that I've brought them joy from a dirty place. That is our mission. Once you experience our service, you'll wonder why you hadn't done this a long time ago.”

The company also has a “soft wash” system for cleaning the outside of a house. A chemical is applied to the house, and grime is then rinsed away with low-pressure water.

“If you leave your car sitting in your driveway for one year, and you never move it, and you never wash it. What's it going to look like after a year? The same thing is happening to your house. I recommend a house be washed every two years,” she says.

Meanwhile, Joy is celebrating 23 years in law enforcement. No longer with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, she has moved on to other investigations, recruited deputies, conducted background investigations, and now works in public affairs – connecting the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office to organizations, companies and people.

When she isn’t working or tending to the needs of her children (who range in age from 11 to 32 and call her “super mom”), she spends her evenings looking after Palmetto Can Cleaning, updating routes and interacting with customers. On weekends, she works routes – cleaning trash cans and houses.

Serving the public with her cleaning service is no different than using her badge to clean up problems in society, a life or a neighborhood, she says.

“It sounds crazy, but it’s extremely therapeutic. When someone tells me, ‘Oh, my can is awful,’ it’s a challenge – just like those dirty, nasty cases I had. I'm going to leave that customer with a clean can. It’s the same feeling I had when I closed a case,” Joy says.

“I'm cleansing my mind from those terrible images and videos. When one of those images flashes into my mind, I think about the joy on the faces of customers when they lift the lids of their trash cans.”

It is important for all law enforcement officers to care for their mental health, Joy says.

“My husband listens. But he says, ‘I don't worry because you have such a strong force. Your GPS is set. Wherever that leads us, we walk right through it.’ He is my anchor, and I'm that speedboat. He's holding on. With that and the support of my family, this business has been my therapy.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Deputy Tanya Joy starts Palmetto Can Cleaning in Greenville