History of waste management
Ancient civilizations like the Roman Empire developed complex waste removal systems, including the Cloaca Maxima, which emptied into the Tiber River.
In the mid-19th century, Edwin Chadwick's report on sanitary conditions spurred legislation like the Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act 1846.
The Maya of Central America had a fixed monthly ritual, in which the people of the village would gather together and burn their garbage in large dumps.
Located in the Fertile Crescent, the Mesopotamian "oasis" shows evidence of wastewater management beginning around 6500 BCE.
[3] Additionally, there are other planned systems in the cities in surrounding areas, suggesting that there was diffusion of waste management techniques throughout the region.
Additionally, archaeological sites and ancient texts show evidence of the first European waste management labor force.
[11] Calls for the establishment of a municipal authority with waste removal powers were mooted as early as 1751 by Corbyn Morris in London, who proposed that "...as the preservation of the health of the people is of great importance, it is proposed that the cleaning of this city, should be put under one uniform public management, and all the filth be...conveyed by the Thames to proper distance in the country".
Main constituent of municipal waste was the coal ash (‘dust’) which had a market value for brick-making and as a soil improver.
Such profitability encouraged dust-contractors to recover effectively 100% of the residual wastes remaining after readily saleable items and materials had been removed by the informal sector in the streets ('rag-and-bone men').
It was important in facilitating a relatively smooth transition to an institutionalised, municipally-run solid waste management system in England.
The Nuisance Removal and Disease Prevention Act of 1846 began what was to be a steadily evolving process of the provision of regulated waste management in London.
The Metropolitan Board of Works was the first citywide authority that centralized sanitation regulation for the rapidly expanding city and the Public Health Act 1875 made it compulsory for every household to deposit their weekly waste in 'moveable receptacles' for disposal - the first concept for a dust-bin.
[18] Similar municipal systems of waste disposal sprung up at the turn of the 20th century in other large cities of Europe and North America.
They became motorized in the early part of the 20th century and the first close body trucks to eliminate odours with a dumping lever mechanism were introduced in the 1920s in Britain.
