1)+Historic+Facts

Since the time of the Hunter Gatherer, humans have generated lots garbage and had no idea what to do with it. Each time their home filled up with trash, they moved to a different residence. As the world’s population increased, so did the problem of getting rid of garbage. Even in the ancient times, the junk was simply thrown out on the streets and was later picked up by slaves and the poor. In the fifth century BC, there were rules in Athens that required citizens to get rid of their trash by throwing it a mile away from the actual city. (Alexander 1-2)

After the formation of industrialization, countries still struggled with ways to keep the garbage off the streets. Europe no longer had any space to dump away the waste. By the nineteenth’s century cremation of refuse was created, which was meant for the garbage to be burned away. In 1874, this new method of garbage disposal was tested in Nottingham, England. The cremation of refuse process became very popular, therefore helping spread burning machines that were used to get rid of trash. However, after some time the use of the burners became inefficient since it generated a lot of smoke and came at a great price (due to the cost of fuel). (Melosi 39) The search for the most convenient way of reducing garbage was back on. When the first sanitation organizations were created, they were meant to clean the streets but not collect the garbage. New York was filled with many narrow streets overflowing with piles of bad smelling rubbish (Alexander 3). The garbage was mostly from food, and included things such as fish bones and peels. This type of junk was reduced due to street animals which would pick up the random food droppings and eat it (Alexander 3). A historian by the name of Lawrence H. Larsen has written that even though America had advanced in the architecture and city growth, it would never mention the amounts of garbage that was on the streets (Melosi 35). The reason for this garbage problem was due to the fact that because of the new age that consisted of more products being available at the market, there wasn’t enough space for throwing these products out. (Melosi 18)

The documentary //Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage// mentions that in North America, during the preindustrial times, citizens were influenced to reuse products because of so little goods available. As an example, a simple glass bottle could be used up to forty times. Reusing products influenced the decrease in the garbage formation. In the 1940s, people would go to city dumps and pick out trash that could be repaired and used again. After World War II, goods started getting produced in bigger quantities, therefore causing the expansion of garbage amounts once again.