History of Garbage Collection from 1700 to Modern Times

The new age of waste disposal began with the turn of the century in 1700, and it brought with it a number of different ideas which ranges from the saving of the feces of dogs to setting up massive plants for burning down waste. Every other person came up with a plan to save the cities from the rapidly developing waste management problem, or to earn a few quick bucks for themselves. During that time, the main material used was coal, as it could burn stuff faster than any other material. Just in London, over 3.5 million tons of waste was burnt.

By 1908, things had changed rapidly, and people would just dump their waste in any location that they found to be convenient. These included wetlands, the ocean or any waste land along their path. In around 161 U.S cities, a setup of waste collection was established, and ‘piggeries’ were introduced, which were small pig farms that would consume the major food waste from the area. By 1914, incinerators had been introduced after lots of trial and error, and so were landfills. Covered body trucks were introduced to help keep the smell of the waste within the truck.

In the year 1934, the Supreme Court took a major step and banned the dumping of municipal waste in to the open ocean. Up to this point, dumping waste in to oceans was very common practice. After this however, the World War 2 began and the whole nation began to recycle paper and rubber, scrap metal as well as tin cans. By the time 1945 came, over a hundred cities within the USA was making use of sanitary landfills for waste disposal.

In the year 1956, the Clean Air Act was passed in Britain, and the USA soon followed suit, and household heat was majorly replaced with electricity and gas. The National Association of Waste Disposal Contractors was formed in order to begin the private hauling of wastage. In 1965, the Solid Waste Disposal Act was put forth, which authorized research in to site inventory, landfill research as well as various methods of safe waste disposal.

In order to help cities manage more waste, the idea of a transfer station was also developed during this period. These are large warehouses which pack waste in order to be moved from one place to another. After the dangers associated with hazardous waste were introduced, significant effort was put in to waste disposal technology. The EPA introduced new standards in 1991 for landfill groundwater research, as well as post closure care of waste disposal sites.

During this time period, different waste disposal trucks were introduced in order to help with the collection of disposal of waste. These include commercial rear load trucks, construction roll off trucks as well as residential garbage dump trucks. Some of the trucks have built in incinerators in order to quickly dispose off of waste. At present, these modern garbage collection trucks are in common use.