2000 BC - Composting is known to have been a part of life in China during the European Bronze age bronze scrap recovery systems were in place.
Over 2,500 years ago, government officials in the Greek city-state of Athens, opened a municipal landfill site and decree that waste is to be transported at least one mile beyond the city gates.
1297AD - In response to the increasing amount of waste deposited in towns in Britain, a law is passed to make householders keep the front of their house clear from refuse. It is largely ignored. However, most waste is burned on household open fires.
1354 - "Rakers" are employed in each London ward to rake rubbish together, load it into carts, and remove it once a week.
1407 - It is ruled that household rubbish is to remain indoors until it can be removed by the rakers after which it is either sold as compost or dumped in the Essex marshes. This preliminary attempt to manage and control waste is not particularly successful, but paves the way for further regulation.
1408 - Henry IV's removal order instructs that refuse be removed or else forfeits be paid.
Medieval German cities required the wagons which bring produce into the city to carry out waste into the countryside.
1500s - Spanish copper mines use scrap iron for cementation of copper, a recycling practice that survives to this day.
1515 - Strafford-upon-Avon court record shows that Shakespeare's father was fined for 'depositing filth in a public street'.
1588 - Elizabeth I grant special privileges for the collection of rags for papermaking.
1700s and 1800s - The Industrial Revolution begins in the 18th century when the availability of raw materials and increased trade and population stimulate new inventions and the development of machinery coal powered machinery can now produce increasingly large quantities of materials quickly and cheaply. Increased production has led to increased waste, which lays in place the means of mass producing materials which we see in factories today.
Early 1800s - Many people lived by selling what they could find in other peoples rubbish, even dogs' dung which was valuable as it was used by tanners for purifying leather. 'Toshers' worked in the sewers, a dangerous and smelly way to make a living, but lucrative as they found coins, bits of metal, ropes and sometimes jewelry. 'Mud-larks' scavenged on the river banks, and made a very poor living. 'Dustmen' collected the ash from coal fires. Over three and a half million tons of coal was burned in London in a year! The dust was taken to dust-yards. Here men, women and children worked on the heaps of rubbish, sieving the breeze or course section of the dust. This is used as a soil conditioner and for brick making.
1848 - In Britain the Public Health Act 1848 begins the process of waste regulation.
1874 - Energy from waste begins its development in Britain as the first "destructor" is designed and constructed in Nottingham. Destructors were prototype incineration plants which burnt mixed fuel producing steam to generate electricity. During the next 30 years, 250 destructors are built in Britain. They are opposed on the grounds of emissions of ashes, dust and charred paper which fall onto the surrounding neighbourhood. By 1945 incineration is at an all time low, to re-emerge in the 1960s and again today, where opposition is on the grounds of dioxin emissions.
1875 - The Public Health Act 1875 charges local authorities with the duty to arrange the removal and disposal of waste, starting an evolution of local authority power. This replaces the previously widespread practice of scavenging. The Act also rules that householders keep their waste in a "movable receptacle", the beginning of the dustbin, which the local authorities have to empty every week. A charge could be made for every day the bin was not emptied.
1890 - The British Paper Company is established specifically to make paper and board from recycled materials. Waste paper is obtained from organisations such as the Salvation Army and rag-and-bone men.
By the late 1800s - household waste is collected daily in moveable ash bins. The waste is sorted by hand, usually by women or girls, into salvageable materials, and coarser materials are sieved from fine ash (breeze). A large proportion of the waste is salvaged, revealing the extent of reuse and recycling systems, for instance materials such as glass and metal are returned to merchants, and the breeze and hard core from incinerated residue are used in building materials. The value of goods reclaimed from dust heaps shows that the level of recycling and reclamation has always depended on economic incentive.
1898 - The Association of Cleansing Superintendents is established, which today has evolved into the Institute of Wastes Management.
Section I: Introduction (YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN THIS SECTION)
Section II: Present
Section III: Future
Complete Table of Contents
Reference