History of waste management
Encyclopedia
Historically, the amount of waste
s generated by human population was insignificant mainly due to the low population densities, coupled with the fact there was very little exploitation of natural resources
. Common wastes produced during the early ages were mainly ashes and human & biodegradable waste
s, and these were released back into the ground locally, with minimal environmental impact
.
Before the widespread use of metal
s, wood
was widely used for most applications. However, reuse of wood has been well documented . Nevertheless, it is once again well documented that reuse and recovery of such metals have been carried out by earlier humans.
The Maya
of Central America
had dumps, which exploded occasionally and burned. They also recycled. Homemakers brought trash to local dumps, and monthly burnings would occur. Many Mayan sites demonstrated such careless consumption. Consumption
and waste of resources is probably related to supply available more than any other factor.
With the advent of industrial revolution
, waste management became a critical issue. This was due to the increase in population and the massive migration of people to industrial towns and cities from rural areas during the 18th century. There was a consequent increase in industrial and domestic wastes posing threat to human health and environment.
, cholera
and typhoid fever
, to mention a few, were diseases that altered the populations of Europe
and influenced monarchies. They were perpetuated by filth that harbored rats, and contaminated water supply. It was not uncommon for European
s to throw their waste and human wastes out of the window which would decompose in the street.
France, specifically Paris seems to have been a leader in waste management. "At Lille, in the 1860s, in the working class district of Saint-Sauveur, 95% of the children died before age 5.
"The famed Paris sewer system was created over a long period of time in the second half of the 19th century. The long delays were largely due to the virulent opposition of property owners, who did not want to pay to install sanitary piping to their buildings. The Prefect of Paris, Monsieur Poubelle, succeeded in forcing garbage cans on the property owners in 1887 only after a ferocious public battle. This government interference in the individual's right to throw his garbage in the street - which was, in reality, the property owner's right to leave his tenants no other option - made Poubelle into the 'cryptosocialist' of the hour. In 1900 owners were still fighting against the obligations to put their buildings on the public sewer system and to cooperate in the collection of garbage. By 1910 a little over half of the city's buildings were on the sewer system and only half of the cities in France had any sewers at all.
"Photos of early-twentieth-century Marseilles show great piles of refuse and excrement down the centre of the streets. Cholera outbreaks were common and ravaged the population. In 1954 the last city without, St. Remy de Provence, installed sewers.
"It was the gradual creation of an effective bureaucracy which brought an end to all this filth and disease, and the public servants did so against the desires of the mass of the middle and upper classes. The free market opposed sanitation. The rich opposed it. The civilized opposed it. Most of the educated opposed it. That is why it took a century to finish what could have been done in ten years" Adapted from John Ralston Saul, Voltaire's Bastards - The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, ref page 239
Waste
Waste is unwanted or useless materials. In biology, waste is any of the many unwanted substances or toxins that are expelled from living organisms, metabolic waste; such as urea, sweat or feces. Litter is waste which has been disposed of improperly...
s generated by human population was insignificant mainly due to the low population densities, coupled with the fact there was very little exploitation of natural resources
Natural Resources
Natural Resources is a soul album released by Motown girl group Martha Reeves and the Vandellas in 1970 on the Gordy label. The album is significant for the Vietnam War ballad "I Should Be Proud" and the slow jam, "Love Guess Who"...
. Common wastes produced during the early ages were mainly ashes and human & biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste
Biodegradable waste is a type of waste, typically originating from plant or animal sources, which may be degraded by other living organisms. Waste that cannot be broken down by other living organisms are called non-biodegradable....
s, and these were released back into the ground locally, with minimal environmental impact
Environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife...
.
Before the widespread use of metal
Metal
A metal , is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat. Metals are usually malleable and shiny, that is they reflect most of incident light...
s, wood
Wood
Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...
was widely used for most applications. However, reuse of wood has been well documented . Nevertheless, it is once again well documented that reuse and recovery of such metals have been carried out by earlier humans.
The Maya
Maya civilization
The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...
of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
had dumps, which exploded occasionally and burned. They also recycled. Homemakers brought trash to local dumps, and monthly burnings would occur. Many Mayan sites demonstrated such careless consumption. Consumption
Consumption (economics)
Consumption is a common concept in economics, and gives rise to derived concepts such as consumer debt. Generally, consumption is defined in part by comparison to production. But the precise definition can vary because different schools of economists define production quite differently...
and waste of resources is probably related to supply available more than any other factor.
With the advent of industrial revolution
Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, transportation, and technology had a profound effect on the social, economic and cultural conditions of the times...
, waste management became a critical issue. This was due to the increase in population and the massive migration of people to industrial towns and cities from rural areas during the 18th century. There was a consequent increase in industrial and domestic wastes posing threat to human health and environment.
Waste management and disease in history
Waste has played a tremendous role in history. The Bubonic PlagueBubonic plague
Plague is a deadly infectious disease that is caused by the enterobacteria Yersinia pestis, named after the French-Swiss bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin. Primarily carried by rodents and spread to humans via fleas, the disease is notorious throughout history, due to the unrivaled scale of death...
, cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
and typhoid fever
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
, to mention a few, were diseases that altered the populations of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and influenced monarchies. They were perpetuated by filth that harbored rats, and contaminated water supply. It was not uncommon for European
European ethnic groups
The ethnic groups in Europe are the various ethnic groups that reside in the nations of Europe. European ethnology is the field of anthropology focusing on Europe....
s to throw their waste and human wastes out of the window which would decompose in the street.
France, specifically Paris seems to have been a leader in waste management. "At Lille, in the 1860s, in the working class district of Saint-Sauveur, 95% of the children died before age 5.
"The famed Paris sewer system was created over a long period of time in the second half of the 19th century. The long delays were largely due to the virulent opposition of property owners, who did not want to pay to install sanitary piping to their buildings. The Prefect of Paris, Monsieur Poubelle, succeeded in forcing garbage cans on the property owners in 1887 only after a ferocious public battle. This government interference in the individual's right to throw his garbage in the street - which was, in reality, the property owner's right to leave his tenants no other option - made Poubelle into the 'cryptosocialist' of the hour. In 1900 owners were still fighting against the obligations to put their buildings on the public sewer system and to cooperate in the collection of garbage. By 1910 a little over half of the city's buildings were on the sewer system and only half of the cities in France had any sewers at all.
"Photos of early-twentieth-century Marseilles show great piles of refuse and excrement down the centre of the streets. Cholera outbreaks were common and ravaged the population. In 1954 the last city without, St. Remy de Provence, installed sewers.
"It was the gradual creation of an effective bureaucracy which brought an end to all this filth and disease, and the public servants did so against the desires of the mass of the middle and upper classes. The free market opposed sanitation. The rich opposed it. The civilized opposed it. Most of the educated opposed it. That is why it took a century to finish what could have been done in ten years" Adapted from John Ralston Saul, Voltaire's Bastards - The Dictatorship of Reason in the West, ref page 239
Timeline of events
| Events in the history of waste management |
Date | Location | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6500 BC | North America North America North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas... |
Archaeological studies show that a clan of Native American Indigenous peoples of the Americas The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans... s in what is now Colorado Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains... produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste a day. |
| 2 | 500 BC | Athens Athens Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state... Greece Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... |
First municipal dump in the Western world Western world The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand... . Regulations require waste to be dumped at least a mile from the city limits. |
| 3 | New Testament New Testament The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament.... of Bible |
Jerusalem Palestine Palestine Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.... |
The valley of Gehenna Gehenna Gehenna , Gehinnom and Yiddish Gehinnam, are terms derived from a place outside ancient Jerusalem known in the Hebrew Bible as the Valley of the Son of Hinnom ; one of the two principal valleys surrounding the Old City.In the Hebrew Bible, the site was initially where apostate Israelites and... (also called Sheol Sheol Sheol |Hebrew]] Šʾôl) is the "grave", "pit", or "abyss" in Hebrew. She'ol is the earliest conception of the afterlife in the Jewish scriptures. It is a place of darkness to which all dead go, regardless of the moral choices made in life, and where they are "removed from the light of God"... ) is a dump outside of the city that periodically burns. It becomes synonymous with "hell": "Though I descent into Sheol, thou art there." |
| 4 | 1388 | England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental... |
English Parliament bars waste disposal in public waterways and ditches. |
| 5 | 1400 | Paris Paris Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region... France France The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France... |
Waste piles so high outside of Paris gates that it interferes with city defense. |
| 6 | 1690 | Philadelphia | Rittenhouse Mill, Philadelphia produces paper from recycled fibers originating from waste paper and rags. |
| 7 | 1820's | London, England | Almost 100% of the waste collected by "dust-men" is recycled/recovered/reused through manual separation and sieving in "dust-yards", the main product being the fine fraction of coal-ash, remaining after coal burning in households ("dust"). The system had many similarities to informal sector recycling, prevailing in today's environmentally developing countries. |
| 8 | 1842 | England | Edwin Chadwick's Report of an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain linked disease to filthy environmental conditions. The "age of sanitation" begins. |
| 9 | 1874 | Nottingham Nottingham Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group... England |
A new technology called "The Destructor", patented by Albert Fryer and built by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. was an engineering company based in Nottingham, England. It was also for a time known as Manlove, Alliott, Fryer & Co. Ltd.-History:... , provides the first systematic incineration of refuse in Nottingham Nottingham Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group... , England. Until this time, much of the burning had been incidental, a result of methane production. |
| 10 | 1885 | Governor's Island New York New York City New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and... |
First waste incinerator is built in United States. |
| 11 | 1889 | Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... |
Washington, D.C., reports that the country is running out of appropriate places for refuse. |
| 12 | 1896 | United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Waste reduction plant Waste compaction Waste compaction is the process of compacting waste. Compaction means to compress, condense or consolidate. It is often used to reduce the size of waste material. Garbage compactors and waste collection vehicles compress waste so that more of it can be stored in the same space... s for compressing organic wastes arrives in US. Later closed because of noxious emissions. |
| 13 | 1898 | New York | New York opens first waste sorting plant for recycling. |
| 14 | Turn of the 20th century | Waste problem seen as one of the greatest problems facing local authorities. | |
| 15 | 1900 | ntensive pig farming] is developed to consume fresh or cooked waste. Later, in the mid-1950s, an outbreak of vesicular exanthema of swine virus Vesicular exanthema of swine virus Vesicular exanthema of swine virus is a virus different from those causing Foot-and-Mouth Disease and Swine Vesicular Disease but it produces a disease in pigs that is clinically indistinguishable from FMD and SVD... results in the destruction of thousands of pigs that had eaten raw waste. A law is passed requiring waste to be cooked before feeding it to swine. |
|
| 15 | 1916 | New York City | New York City citizens produce 4.6 pounds of refuse per day. |
| 17 | 1914 | United States | Approximately 300 incinerators operating in the US for burning waste. |
| 18 | 1920's | Landfills become a popular way to reclaim swamp land while getting rid of trash. | |
| 19 | 1954 | Olympia Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat of Thurston County. It was incorporated on January 28, 1859. The population was 46,478 at the 2010 census... , Washington |
The city of Olympia, Washington, pays for return of aluminum cans. |
| 20 | 1965 | United States | First US federal solid waste management laws enacted. |
| 21 | 1968 | Companies begin to buy back recyclable containers. | |
| 22 | 1970 | United States | First Earth Day celebrated. Environmental Protection Agency United States Environmental Protection Agency The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is an agency of the federal government of the United States charged with protecting human health and the environment, by writing and enforcing regulations based on laws passed by Congress... created. |
| 23 | 1976 | United States | As a result of the 1974 oil embargo and discovery (or recognition) of Love Canal Love Canal Love Canal was a neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York, located in the white collar LaSalle section of the city. It officially covers 36 square blocks in the far southeastern corner of the city, along 99th Street and Read Avenue... , the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Resource Conservation and Recovery Act The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act , enacted in 1976, is the principal Federal law in the United States governing the disposal of solid waste and hazardous waste.-History and Goals:... (RCRA) is created to emphasizing recycling and waste management. |
| 24 | 1979 | United States | EPA issue criteria for the prohibition of open dumping. |
See also
- 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak1854 Broad Street cholera outbreakThe Broad Street cholera outbreak was a severe outbreak of cholera that occurred near Broad Street in Soho district of London, England in 1854...
- Eugène PoubelleEugène PoubelleEugène-René Poubelle was the man who introduced the dustbin, or trash can, to Paris and after whom the French dustbin is now named...
decreed in 1884 that owners of buildings must provide those who lived there with three covered containers of 40 to 120 litres to hold household refuse. It was to be sorted into perishable items, paper and cloth, crockery and shells.