Throughout most of history, the amount of
waste generated by humans was insignificant due to low levels of
population density and
exploitation of natural resources. Common waste produced during pre-modern times was mainly ashes and human
biodegradable waste, and these were released back into the ground locally, with minimum
environmental impact. Tools made out of
wood or
metal were generally reused or passed down through the generations. However, some civilizations have been more profligate in their waste output than others. In particular, the
Maya of
Central America had designated dump sites where rubbish was collected and burned. In the
Ashanti Empire by the 19th century, there existed a Public Works Department that was responsible for sanitation in
Kumasi and its suburbs. They kept the streets clean daily and commanded civilians to keep their compounds clean and weeded.
United Kingdom 's 1842 report
The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population was influential in securing the passage of the first legislation aimed at waste clearance and disposal. Following the onset of the
Industrial Revolution, industrialisation, and the sustained urban growth of large population centres in
England, the buildup of waste in the cities caused a rapid deterioration in levels of
sanitation and the general quality of urban life. The streets became choked with filth due to the lack of waste clearance regulations. Calls for the establishment of municipal authority with waste removal powers occurred as early as 1751, when
Corbyn Morris in London 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". However, it was not until the mid-19th century, spurred by increasingly devastating
cholera outbreaks and the emergence of a public health debate that the first legislation on the issue emerged. Highly influential in this new focus was the report
The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population in 1842 of the
social reformer,
Edwin Chadwick, in which he argued for the importance of adequate waste removal and management facilities to improve the health and wellbeing of the city's population. In the UK, 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
dustbin. 1894 destructor furnace. The use of
incinerators for waste disposal became popular in the late 19th century. The dramatic increase in waste for disposal led to the creation of the first
incineration plants, or, as they were then called, "destructors". In 1874, the first incinerator was built in
Nottingham by
Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd. to the design of Alfred Fryer. Similar municipal systems of waste disposal sprung up at the turn of the 20th century in other large cities of Europe and North America. Early
garbage removal trucks were simply open-bodied
dump trucks pulled by a team of horses. They became motorized in the early part of the 20th century and the first closed-body trucks to eliminate odours with a dumping lever mechanism were introduced in the 1920s in Britain. These were soon equipped with 'hopper mechanisms' where the scooper was loaded at floor level and then hoisted mechanically to deposit the waste in the truck. The
Garwood Load Packer was the first truck in 1938, to incorporate a hydraulic compactor.
United States Waste management in the United States dates back to colonial times, with New Amsterdam (now New York City) making it illegal to throw waste into the street as early as 1654. In the mid 1700s,
Benjamin Franklin started the first waste collection and street-cleaning service in the
History of Philadelphia. He wrote and distributed papers explaining the benefits of clean streets, convincing residents to pay a small fee for regular cleaning. His efforts led to the paving and cleaning of Philadelphia's streets, making them more accessible and reducing dust and debris. His advocacy contributed to the passage of a 1762 law regulating street maintenance. Historian Martin Melosi outlines the history of American urban sanitation through three distinct phases, each defined by evolving concerns about water supply, sewerage, and waste disposal: • The Age of Miasmas (Colonial Era–1880): As cities rapidly expanded, particularly after 1830, sanitation became a pressing issue. Influenced by English beliefs, American officials mistakenly blamed epidemic diseases on "
miasmas"—unpleasant odors from accumulated filth. They focused on improving water supply and building mile after mile of sewers through residential neighborhoods to handle wastewater removal. No miasma supposedly meant no disease. Throughout the 1800s, cities typically relied on animals for organic waste disposal—even New York City used piggeries, with thousands of pigs roaming freely through the streets consuming city refuse. • The Bacteriological Revolution (1880–1945): Melosi finds that scientific breakthroughs in Europe revealed that germs, not miasmas, caused epidemics. This led to more effective disease prevention strategies and the development of comprehensive sanitation systems based on pure water supplies. Cities also began experimenting with solid waste disposal methods, particularly to manage the mountains of human and horse waste. However, they were late to deal with smoke pollution and they ignored industrial chemicals. In 1895, New York City became the first American city with public-sector garbage management. By the late 1880s the city government in Chicago hired 225 st teams, which gathered over 2,000 cubic yards of refuse daily. In Manhattan in New York City, individual scavengers carted away over 600 tons of garbage every day, and in the summer, over 1000 tons a day. The era of terrible epidemics such as
cholera practically ended. (The worldwide "
Spanish flu" epidemic of 1919 was a major killer that was not caused by urban waste.) • The New Ecology (Since 1945): Continued urban expansion, Melosi argues, has strained sanitation infrastructure, requiring costly cleanup and repairs. Since the 1960s, growing environmental awareness has broadened concerns beyond biological pollutants to include industrial and chemical contaminants. In 1962
Rachel Carson reached a huge popular audience with
Silent Spring that warned that pesticides especially
DDT were greatly damaging the environment--spring was eerily quiet because DDT was killing the songbirds. Public opinion forced wave after wave of government interventions from the national level, such as the
Environmental Protection Agency. ==Waste handling and transport==