Documents on Trash (3)

Date: 1 Sep 2006

Littering and Illegal Dumping
A Historical Perspective

In order to understand and appreciate the problem of littering and illegal dumping in our communities, it is helpful to know some background of how people have dealt with their solid waste throughout the ages. The history of how people have collected and disposed of their waste over the last several hundred years is very interesting and offers great variety. Although much has changed over the years, one of the most lasting truths about the waste issue is that much has stayed the same. Until the effects of trash become a problem or hardship, “out of sight, out of mind” is a common way for people to deal with it.

Native Populations
Early man and many native populations spent much of their time on the basic necessities of life. Providing food for their families by hunting, gathering or gardening, building adequate shelter, and making clothing were activities that consumed huge amounts of their lives. Life was based around survival, and there were few extras. When an animal was killed, every part was put to good use and nothing was wasted. The meat was smoked and stored to provide food throughout the year. After the hides were dried and stretched, they were used to make clothing, bedding, shelter, and cooking implements. The bones, sinew, some internal organs and antlers were all used to create needed supplies for their survival. Any unused parts were returned to nature for other animals to eat. Nothing was wasted.

Generally, many of these native societies around the world had a great respect for the land, water and animals on which they depended. Never taking more than was needed, finding ways to completely utilize what was taken, and then giving back to nature by practicing waste minimization was a way of life for them.

Early Civilizations
The early Greek civilization had developed a fairly complex sewage and water supply system; however, their garbage was usually dumped into the Tiber River or into large pits on the cities’ outskirts. The Greeks knew that garbage attracted rats and the rats could spread disease. In order to prevent sickness that could wipe out great numbers of their people, they kept their wastes outside of the city walls. The Romans were greatly influenced by the Greeks and their culture reflected the same patterns of waste disposal.

Middle Ages
Waste management took a turn for the worse following the fall of the Roman Empire. In the 15th and 16th centuries, English castles had “privies,” (small rooms featuring a wooden or stone seat placed over a vertical shaft that led to a moat, barrel or pit.) The moats which surrounded castles were filled with the various wastes produced by the people living in them. They collected rain water and became a breeding ground for disease. These filthy moats also became effective barriers that kept the enemies of the castle at a distance. Poorer people, who didn’t have castles, simply threw their wastes into the gutters of the street.

Colonial America
Most early settlers from Europe or the Colonies who ventured into unknown territories could take only a limited amount with them - whatever they could carry with them on a ship, pack on a horse, or load into a wagon. When things wore out, they were repaired, patched, or rebuilt. The old adage “Make do, or do without” was probably heard often in these early days. The settlers had few “extras”. When wagons broke down and couldn’t be repaired or horses died and the wagons lost their means of power, the settlers piled whatever furniture, clothing and supplies that couldn’t be carried on their backs or packed onto their remaining horses by the side of the trail. Others following behind could then pick up the discards if they were able to transport them.

Stories of the old West describe trails lined with stoves, anvils, furniture, spoiling food, the remains of butchered animals, and human waste. One account promises that newcomers would be able to smell their way to the Rockies in 1849 and 1850! Early settlers, like the Native Americans already here, used rivers, woods and shrubs to fulfill their toilet needs and threw their garbage into dumps, usually over a bank not too far from their homes. Through the investigation of these early dumps, we have learned that only what truly couldn’t be used was thrown out. Broken dishes and bottles, worn out leather items, clam shells (if the dump was near the ocean), and unusable metal items have all been found there. In many places, food waste and/or fish was buried in garden plots to enrich the soil. This early form of composting was taught to the settlers by the Indians.

During colonial times, in towns and later in cities, people emptied their pots and garbage out their doors and windows, just as they had in England. Streets in these areas often had running streams of garbage, waste and mud. As early as 1700, ordinances were passed to prevent people from throwing waste in the street.

Industrial Revolution
Never before in history did the middle class have the ability to purchase items that were now made in mass quantities in factories. Previously, prized possessions and house wares were handcrafted. Then, in the late 1800s, people could buy what they wanted from their general store or through mail order catalogs, like Sears and Roebuck and Montgomery Ward.

In England and much of Europe during the Industrial Revolution, many people moved to the cities and into crowded and unsanitary living conditions. In order to be polite, people tossing waste water and the contents of their chamber pots out windows onto the street below were supposed to shout “Gardez L’eau” (French for “watch out for the water”). This saying remains a part of British vocabulary today in the use of the word “loo," slang for toilet. Things got so bad in England that in 1848, a Public Health Act was passed mandating some kind of arrangement for every house, whether it be a flush toilet, a privy or an ash pit. The Act did little to solve the problem, for soon after the streets were cleaned up, the rivers started to reek. The Thames River quickly gained a reputation as a “cesspool,” and in the hot summer of 1859, the smell from the river was so pungent that Parliament had to be suspended. Disease, cholera in particular, was a problem.

Refuse disposal until the mid-19th century can be described as citizens throwing waste out of doors or into waterways. As people moved to towns and cities, dumps were required to be outside the city gates. Until the garbage piled up outside the city gates became a problem, either because it hindered access to and from the city, and caused a severe smell or spread highly contagious diseases, not much was done about it. In 1874, English concerns for the unsanitary handling of wastes prompted the invention of a process for incinerating or burning of municipal waste called the “The Destructor." By 1885, the first municipal solid waste incinerator was in use on Governor’s Island in New York. By 1914, over 300 such incinerators were in use throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Ocean Dumping
Ocean dumping had been a common method of waste disposal around the world. Not only household garbage, but hazardous wastes, obsolete ammunition, scrap metal and boats have been disposed of in the oceans. Barges from U.S. coastal cities routinely carried trash out into the open ocean and dumped it. It wasn’t until 1988 that the U.S. banned the dumping of industrial and sewage wastes into the ocean.

Sea dumping of wastes has been a common practice in the waters surrounding Australia, from the first European settlement until a couple of decades ago. During the 1920s there was considerable public concern about pollution washing up on beaches in the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. Ships routinely discharged loads of garbage just off the coast. Some of this waste included parts of butchered animals, organic refuse, municipal waste and ashes. For the past sixty years, sea dumping has been regulated by legislation with increasing restriction on the type of material dumped. However, ocean dumping is still permitted by some countries.

Modern Legislation
As cities developed more successful ways of dealing with municipal waste, people became used to putting out their trash, having it picked up at the curb and then not worrying about it. Municipal trucks and local haulers carried the trash to dumps. In the early 1900s each town or city had its own dump, usually over a steep bank on the edge of town, where the trucks were unloaded and machinery compacted the trash. It wasn’t until 1965 that the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act was signed, funding research and grants into the solid waste issue. And in 1970, the first federal guidelines for dealing with solid waste were issued. Town dumps were banned and sanitary landfills were developed to more safely bury our waste. April 22 of that year was also our country’s first Earth Day, bringing education and awareness to everyone about what they can do to treat our earth responsibly.

In rural areas, farmers were advised by the U.S. Cooperative Extension Service as recently as the 1940s and '50s, to find a ravine on their property where they could dispose of the large amounts of trash that farms produced. In later years they were encouraged to occasionally cover the dump with dirt. Sometimes these farm dumps were set on fire to dispose of the burnable items and reduce the size of the dump. It wasn’t until pesticides and farm chemicals deposited in these dumps began to leach into nearby waterways that they were prohibited and alternative methods for disposing of waste encouraged. Some of the money from the “Superfund” created to deal with our country’s toxic waste dumps is now making its way into the hands of these farmers to help with the costs of cleaning up their farm dumps. However, in many rural areas, the habit of using a burn barrel to dispose of burnable trash and then pitching the rest over a bank is ingrained and hard to break.

As people became more aware of the negative effects of careless trash disposal, the government passed new laws. The federal government and the states said how waste should be transported, how landfills should be built to protect the environment, and then classified types of waste and disposal methods for specific kinds of waste.

Large waste companies built bigger and more expensive landfills with plastic liners to protect the groundwater, while the local unlined municipal dumps serving smaller populations were closed. Suddenly the cost of setting your bags of garbage at the curb for pickup greatly increased.

One of the valuable lessons that first Earth Day in 1970 gave us was information on what we could do to lessen the amount of trash that we put in the waste stream. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle became the chant of those early environmentalists. The federal goals requiring us to recycle increased percentages of our waste (in 2005, 35%), stimulated many states and municipalities to start mandatory recycling programs for some of their citizens. Whatever trash gets diverted from our landfills, the longer the landfills will last. Lots of people regularly separate steel and aluminum cans, glass and plastic bottles and newspapers, and take them to a drop off center or place them at the curb. In some rural areas, newspapers are shredded by farmers who use them for animal bedding.

Increased Waste Generation

There are several related issues that lie at the root of our waste problem.

Increased population
More mobility
Advanced technology

With an increase in population and more advanced technologies, peopleare more mobile and use more disposable products, and there are more peoplegenerating waste.

World population has grown by 1.98 billion in 25 years (3.698 billion in 1970, 5.675in 1995). Just this increase of 1.98 billion is equal to the entire populationof the world in 1929. In the last 25 years, the United States' population has increasedby 60 million, which was the entire U.S. population of 1886! The worldpopulation in 1950 was 2.6 billion. In 2000, our population stands at 6billion worldwide.

More people travel farther and more often than earlier generations.In 1995, 200 million vehicles were registered in the U.S. People travelingto and from work spend many hours in their cars each day, often eatingsnacks and drinking beverages. Many families eat one or two meals on therun, at the game or in the car. Keeping our cars free of litter and trashhas become a weekly task for most of us.

New technology has given rise to changes in our packaging of products.Packaging is designed for convenience, protection of the product and topromote product sales, not with biodegradability or conservation in mind.Many items we use regularly are designed to be disposable or single use:disposable diapers, throw away razors, individual serving size containers.The fast food we eat is packaged in cans, bottles, polystyrene, paper andplastic containers. Think of all the packaging that we throw away eachday.

Lack of education and caring has allowed people to become wasteful over-consumers.In addition, we have limited natural resources so that at some point, productionand use will have to be limited as well.

With more waste being generated, more waste is escaping proper disposal.Litter and illegal dumping have become major problems receiving more publicattention.

Produce Less Waste by Practicing the Three Rs

Reduce the amount and toxicity of trash you throw away.

Reuse containers and products; repair what is broken or give it to someonewho can repair it.

Recycle as much as possible and buy products with recycled content.

Reduce:

Reuse:

Recycle:

Buy Recycled:

http://www.dep.state.pa.us

For further information about recycling, contact your municipal or countyrecycling coordinator or solid waste authority. The Pennsylvania Departmentof Environmental Protection also has recycling information on its websiteat www.dep.state.pa.us. To get a list of recycled products made in Pennsylvania,contact the Pennsylvania Resources Council at http://www.prc.org.

The above suggestions are only a partial list of the many ways individualscan contribute to solving the solid waste problem. As a teacher androle model, the influence you can have on others is powerful. Many familiesnow recycle as a result of students coming home and encouraging the practice.Many schools now have recycling programs and have eliminated the use ofmany plastics and polystyrene from their food service programs becauseof students organizing the programs or showing the administration how cost-savingthis can be. The DEP or your county recycling coordinator can tell you howto set up a recycling program in your school.

Trash Timeline and History of Waste Management

12,000 B.C.Egyptians use the first glass, in the form of beads.

10,000 B.C.Garbage becomes an issue as people first begin to establish permanent settlements.

1500 B.C.The first jars and bottles are made out of glass.

400 B.C.Athens, Greece, organizes the first municipal landfill in the Western world and requires waste disposal at least one mile from city walls. Virtually anything considered unwanted waste is left in the dump.

105 A.D.Paper is invented in China by Ts’ai Lun.

200The first sanitation force is created by the Romans. Teams of two men walk along the streets, pick up garbage, and throw it into a wagon.

1000-1400 A.D.

Parisians cast garbage out their windows. Although several attempts are made at effective collection and disposal, eventually the waste grows so high beyond the city gate that it becomes an impediment to Paris’ defense. In general, people slowly become aware of waste as a health hazard. Public resistance to new regulations is strong, however, and primitive collection and disposal methods dominate.

About A.D. 1000People in Turkey recycle marble building facings into cemetery headstones.

1031The Japanese use wastepaper to make new paper — the first recorded occurrence of paper recycling. The Chinese probably employed the process earlier.

1131Paris prohibits swine (pigs) from running loose in the streets.

About 1150The first European paper probably is manufactured in Spain. Recycled rags are used as virtually the only source of paper fiber for the next 700 years in the West.

1348The Black Death epidemic reaches Europe from Asia, caused in part by garbage tossed into unpaved streets and vacant spaces which attracted rats. Fleas that traveled on the backs of infected rats quickly spread the disease to humans. Millions of people died.

1388Reacting to waste disposal methods that involve simply throwing garbage out of windows and doors, the English Parliament bans waste disposal in public waterways and ditches.

Laws are developed requiring that garbage be taken outside of the city gates, but 12 years later in Paris, garbage has piled up so high outside the gate that it actually interferes with the defense of the city.

1400-1750

People generally throw away garbage in random, unorganized ways. Cities pass laws against the most unsanitary practices, but it does little good.

1400The waste from Paris is piled so high outside the city gates that it interferes with the city’s defenses.

A new regulation in Paris requires anyone who brings a cart of sand, earth, or gravel into the city to leave with a load of mud or refuse.

1551The first recorded use of packaging: German papermaker Andreas Bernhart begins placing his paper in wrappers labeled with his name and address.

1608Glass was part of the first cargo ever shipped from the American shores, and a glass factory was established in Jamestown, Virginia. Not only was it America's first factory, but glass was America's first industry--created a dozen years before the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620.

1642Scrap use comes to North America as the first iron furnace is built in Saugus, MA.

1646Jenks Iron Works in Lynn receives permission to buy the Massachusetts colony’s guns and melt them down.

1657Residents of New Amsterdam (New York) are among the first to pass laws prohibiting the throwing of trash into the streets, but street conditions remain the homeowners’ responsibility.

1690The Rittenhouse family establishes America’s first paper mill on the banks of Wissahickon Creek near Philadelphia. It makes paper from recycled cotton and linen as well as used paper.

1750-1870

The Industrial Revolution begins in England. It represents a landmark increase in the amount of waste generated. Waste collection first emerges as a city service, although collection occurs largely by scavenging. In the United States, cities are smaller and space and natural resources are more plentiful. But Americans have the same habit as the English of throwing garbage into the streets. The streets reek of waste. By the mid-19th century, several cities pass ordinances against indiscriminate dumping of refuse and the free roaming of animals, but those measures aren’t enough to curb the waste problem. Waste collection and disposal methods remain primitive.

American colonists declare their independence from England and they turn to recycling for materials to support the Revolutionary War effort.

Late 1700’s Ragpickers, men with horse-drawn carts, make trips into rural areas to barter for worn-out farm implements and other items, including rags and bones, that have resale value.

1757 Benjamin Franklin starts the first street cleaning program in North America in Philadelphia.

1776The first metal recycling occurs in America when patriots in New York City melt down a statue of King George III and make it into 42,088 bullets.

1785The first cardboard box made in America is manufactured in Philadelphia by Frederick Newman.

1792 Benjamin Franklin uses slaves to carry Philadelphia’s waste downstream.

1800 Matthias Koops obtains a patent in England for a paper de-inking process. The following year, Koops builds the first commercial mill in the West to use materials other than cotton and linen rags to make paper.

1810 The tin can is patented in London by Peter Durand.

1834 Charleston, WV, enacts a law protecting garbage-eating vultures from hunters.

1840’sPeddlers in America, primarily immigrants, begin collecting and recycling anything with resale value.

1850’s Pioneers heading west abandon personal belongings along the way and junk dealers scavenge the materials along the trails.

1858The Mason jar is invented, allowing fruits and vegetables to be preserved.

1860 More than 500 paper mills are operating in the U.S., using cloth rags as their primary source of fiber.

Private scavenging companies and municipal crews begin working together to clean up New York. They remove 15,000 horse carcasses from the city streets (city horses have rough lives pulling street cars; their average life expectancy is only two years!)

1861-1865During the Civil War, both the North and South urge citizens to donate all old metal objects. In the South, this need is critical due to the North’s control of iron making.

1865 Newspapers begin to describe the availability and price of scrap.

An estimated 10,000 hogs roam the streets of New York City, gorging on garbage.

1866New York City’s Metropolitan Board of Health declares war on trash, forbidding the throwing of dead animals, garbage or ashes into the streets.

1868 Chemist John Hyatt saves thousands of elephants, which were killed for their ivory tusks, by inventing celluloid for billiard balls. The balls sometimes spark on collision and even explode, requiring a search for improvements that lead to the invention of plastics, an industry that Hyatt can be said to have founded.

1870-1902

The industrial city emerges in America, characterized by mounds of putrefying garbage. It lands in the streets and waterways. People dump garbage, slag, ashes and scrap metal on vacant land. Industries dump animal waste in open pits or empty lots. The proliferation of horses leads to an excess of manure and carcasses. By the 1890’s the U.S. recognizes “the garbage problem.” It is considered a health issue, not just a nuisance. Cities debate contracting with private companies or establishing a municipal service.

1874 Concerns about unhealthy sanitary conditions in England prompt a new invention in Nottingham—”The Destructor” provides the first systematic incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW). Curbside recycling begins for the first time in the United States in Baltimore.

Late 1800’s A revolution in the steel making industry takes place as the open hearth furnace gradually replaces the Bessemer process. The advent of the open hearth and later the electric furnace results in a dramatic rise in demand for scrap.

1885 The first garbage incinerator in the U.S. is built on Governor’s Island, New York. By 1914, 300 incinerators are located in the U.S. and Canada.

1887 The American Public Health Association appoints a Committee on Garbage Disposal, to determine the extent of the refuse problem in the U.S. The committee spends ten years on its assignment.

1880’s-1890’s Garbage often is dumped near “least desirable” neighborhoods. Protests from residents there are largely ignored.

1888-1913A survey shows selected American cities generate 860 pounds of garbage per capita, compared with 450 pounds for English cities and 319 for German cities.

1890 The Boston Health Department proclaims burning waste to be the “best and safest” means of disposal. But because of the high cost of commercial incinerators, the department recommends burning waste in home kitchens.

1890’s Sanitary engineers become more prominent in addressing waste management, applying a more organized, scientific approach. Civic organizations increasingly try to raise public consciousness about the refuse problem.

1895 Col. George E. Waring Jr. is appointed New York City street cleaning commissioner of New York City. He develops the first practical, comprehensive system of refuse management in the U.S. Among his other reforms and innovations, he is the first to attempt to separate refuse on a large scale, to allow the city to recover and resell some of the materials and allow street crews to handle them more easily. His plan requires everyone to keep organic waste, rubbish and ashes in separate containers and begins the city’s first municipal recycling program. In 1898 he takes over from “scow trimmers,” who rummage through dumping scows (headed for the ocean) for materials with resale value, and establishes the first rubbish-sorting plant in the U.S. The city’s recycling operation was closed in 1925 due to complaints about odors, and ocean dumping gradually resumed until it was outlawed again in the 1980’s.

1895 King C. Gillette, a traveling salesman, tires of sharpening his razor and creates the disposable razor blade.

1896The Vienna or Merz system of extracting oils and other by-products through the compression of city garbage is introduced in Buffalo, NY. The reduction process gives cities a disposal method that provides recoverable and resalable materials from waste.

1902-1924

1902 Municipal solid waste collection, i.e. curbside pickup, becomes the norm in cities— 79% of the U.S. cities surveyed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology provide it. Trash is taken to the “town dump.”

1903Corrugated paperboard containers find use commercially.

1904 The nation’s first major aluminum recycling plants open in Chicago and Cleveland.

The U.S. allows permit mail, which opens the door for direct mail advertising.

The following year, the Williamsburg Lighting Plant is constructed on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and incorporates waste recycling and incineration.

And lastly, at the World’s Fair in St. Louis, a gold medal is awarded for the first successful scrap handling magnet. Within two years, magnets are used throughout the scrap industry.

1905 The publication Engineering News notes that experiments involving the plowing of waste into the land in and around St. Louis might offer opportunities for the systematic burying of garbage.

1907The first paper towels are developed.

1908 Paper cups replace tin around the U.S. in vending machines, in public buildings and on trains. America also becomes the leading producer of paper and paper products (about 640,000 tons) and the leading consumer (38.6 pounds per capita). To meet increasing demand and the fear of deforestation, the U.S. steps up imports of rags and wastepaper. By 1916 the U.S. produces 15,000 tons of paper per day, using about 5,000 tons of old paper.

Manufacturers develop means to remove printer’s ink from old newspapers through a defibering process, while other processes turn old paper into cardboard and pasteboard.

1909 Kraft paper pulp is first made in the U.S.

1910A gas cutting torch is first used in a scrap yard in Lebanon, PA.

1912Cellophane (clear plastic) is invented by Swiss chemist Dr. Jacques Brandenberger, which encourages the use of plastic packaging.

1914 Source reduction of waste is on the wane because people consider it too costly and it affects too little of the waste stream. Incineration also struggles in the U.S. because of problems adapting the English model.

1916 Cities begin switching from horse-drawn to motorized refuse collection equipment.

A shortage of rags and wastepaper caused by WW I prompts the U.S. Department of Commerce to encourage citizens to save those materials for mills.

Dr. Thomas Jasperson obtains a U.S. Patent for the production of paper from de-inking recovered fiber around the same time.

1917 Experimentation takes place with turning waste into energy, such as steam, electricity, liquid or solid fuels, alcohol or fuel bricks. The methods have little impact because existing energy sources are cheap. Also, in response to wartime shortages, the U.S. Government establishes the Waste Reclamation Service, which stresses the value of waste.

1920’s Population growth begins spreading out; society becomes more consumer and service-oriented, and generates significantly more waste. The U.S. Government becomes more deeply involved in the affairs of the city. Filling in wetlands with garbage, ash and dirt becomes popular.

1924 Farm use (fertilizers, animal feed) is the most popular form of waste disposal at 38 percent in a survey of U.S. cities, followed by incineration at 29 percent and dumping at 17 percent.

Municipal collection of waste rises to 63 percent of cities in the U.S. Census, compared with 24 percent in 1880.

In addition, the Kleenex facial tissue is introduced.

1930-1950

1930’sEnclosed collection vehicles begin replacing horse-drawn waste carts.

1934 Dumping of municipal waste at sea becomes illegal. Industrial and some commercial wastes are immune from the law.

1935The first beer can is produced by Krueger’s Cream Ale in Richmond, VA. Over the next six months, company sales increased 550% because customers loved the convenience.

The first sanitary landfill is built in Fresno, CA. Closed in 1987, the landfill is now on the Superfund list of the nation’s most polluted sites.

1939-45 Wartime shortages increase the demand for reusing tin, rubber, aluminum, paper, fats and other materials to help the war effort.

1943The aerosol can is invented by two researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

1944 Dow Chemical Company invents Styrofoam.

1946Sanitary landfills become a preferred disposal alternative to open dumping.

Late 1940’s The popularity of electric arc furnaces for steel production increases. These furnaces produce fewer emissions and much less pollution.

1948 Fresh Kills landfill is opened in Staten Island, NY. It later becomes the world’s largest city dump. Fresh Kills and the Great Wall of China are the only man-made objects visible with the naked eye from space.

1950-1970

1950’s In-house garbage disposal units become popular. In some cities, it’s estimated that 25-30 percent of all garbage is ground up.

1953 The anti-litter association Keep America Beautiful forms.

Also, Swanson’s introduces the first successful TV dinner. Convenience food of all kinds increase rapidly in popularity during the 1950s.

1958 The group that eventually becomes the National Solid Waste Association forms.

1959 The American Society of Civil Engineers publishes a standard guide to sanitary landfilling. It suggests compacting the refuse and covering it with a daily layer of soil to fight odors and rodents.

1960’s Plastic begins getting extensive use as packaging. Pop tops or pull tabs on beverage cans become popular.

Municipal collection and disposal increases over private collection in the late 1930s, but begins to lose ground in the 1960s. Private firms become more attractive to replace city services, offering cost savings and improved service. Regional agencies begin to emerge to meet increasingly complex problems.

Interest in waste-to-energy as a diversion alternative develops in the U.S.

1961 A city ordinance in Los Angeles eliminates the sorting of recyclables after Sam Yorty successfully runs for mayor with that as his campaign promise.

The Governmental Refuse Collection and Disposal Association forms. In 1991, the group changes its name to the Solid Waste Association of North America.

Proctor & Gamble begins test-marketing the disposable diaper.

1962Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring is published. It carefully outlines the deadly result of using the pesticide DDT and becomes the bible for the environmental movement.

1965 Aluminum cans for beverages are introduced.

The Solid Waste Disposal Act (SWDA), the nation’s first federal solid waste management law—authorizes research and provides for state grants. It states that while state, regional, and local authorities primarily should be responsible for waste management, the federal government will provide financial and technical assistance. But the act has no regulatory authority.

1968 President Johnson commissions the first comprehensive survey of solid waste since cities began keeping garbage records in the early 1900’s. Cities collect and dispose of 140 million tons of solid waste.

The U.S. aluminum industry begins recycling discarded aluminum products, from beverage cans to window blinds.

1969 Rubber reclaiming drops to 8.8 percent from 19 percent in 1958.

Seattle institutes a new fee structure for garbage pickup, which incorporates a base rate and an additional fee for garbage above a certain amount.

Also, a small collection company, American Refuse Systems Inc. merges with equipment distributor Browning-Ferris Machinery Co. to form Browning-Ferris Industries, Inc.

1970-1985

1970 The enactment of the Clean Air Act leads to the closing of many incinerators.

The first Earth Day focuses attention on environmental concerns. Recycling’s chasing arrows logo is introduced on that day.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is created.

Congress passes the Resource Recovery Act. It shifts the emphasis of federal involvement from disposal to recycling, resource recovery, and waste-to-energy.

There are an estimated 15,000 authorized land disposal sites, but as many as 10 times that number of unauthorized dumps. A study in the mid-1970s states that 94 percent of the landfills surveyed did not meet the minimum requirement for a sanitary landfill.

1970’s Resource recovery becomes increasingly popular in some circles, but others say it’s not viable because it’s not economically profitable. Compactor trucks comprise a majority of all collection vehicles.

The EPA Office of Solid Waste gets the authority to study solid waste, award grants and publish guidelines.

1971Oregon passed the nation’s first bottle bill as an anti-litter law. The law resulted in a dramatic reduction in beverage container litter and gained widespread public support. Four years after implementation, the bottle bill had a public approval rating of 90 percent.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is created. It is charged with the mission “to protect human health and to safeguard the natural environment.”

Waste Management, Inc. is formed.

1972The first buy-back centers for recyclables are opened in Washington State. They accept beer bottles, aluminum cans, and newspapers.

A bottle made from PET (polyethylene terephthalate) is patented by chemist Nathaniel Wyeth (brother of Andrew Wyeth, the American painter).

1973 The paper recycling rate drops to 17.6 percent from 35 percent in 1944.

1974The number of incinerator plants drops to 160, from 265 in 1966 and 600-700 in 1938.

The first city-wide use of curbside recycling bins occurs in University City, MO, for collecting newspapers.

Mid-1970’s The EPA proposes a drastic cutback in the federal solid waste program so the government can focus on hazardous waste, but the agency backs off after several public sector groups protest.1975 The number of private garbage hauling companies increases. The percent of waste collected by private companies as opposed to municipalities is reported to be 66%.

1976 Congress passes the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) which requires all dumps to be replaced with “sanitary landfills.” The enforcement of this act will increase the cost of landfill disposal and make resource-conserving options like recycling more appealing. It stands today as the primary piece of federal solid waste legislation and essentially replaced and built upon the Resource Recovery Act.

The Toxic Substances Control Act is passed, which helps prevent the dumping of hazardous chemicals in landfills.

Three people from Bartlesville, OK, get a patent on a method for purifying and reusing lubricating oils.

1977 PET soda bottles begin replacing glass.

1978The U.S. Supreme Court rules that garbage is protected by the Interstate Commerce Clause, so states can’t ban shipment of waste from one state to the other.

Also in 1978, 200 families are relocated from Love Canal (they did not begin returning until 1989) after it was determined that Hooker Chemical and Plaster Corp. had put 21,000 tons of chemical waste there 25 years earlier. They covered it up and then sold the property to the Niagara Falls Board of Education, which placed a school and playground on the site. Lawsuits for damages continued into the mid-1990’s. The Love Canal incident is cited as a prime cause in the creation of the Comprehensive Environmental Response and Reliability Act, also known as Superfund, in 1980.

1979 The EPA issues landfill regulations that prohibit open dumping.

1980Per capita production of waste reaches 8 pounds per day, up from 5 pounds in 1970 and 2.75 pounds in 1920.

1984 Reauthorization of RCRA and amendments to the Hazardous and Solid Waste Act call for tougher federal regulation of landfills.1985-1999

1985First Adopt-A-Highway program started in Texas to address litter along state-maintained roads.

1986 Rhode Island becomes the first state to pass mandatory recycling laws for aluminum and steel cans, glass, newspaper, and soda bottles (PET) and milk jugs (HDPE) plastic.

The city of San Francisco meets its goal of recycling 25% of its commercial and residential waste.

The Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island, NY becomes the largest landfill in the world.

1987 A Long Island garbage barge known as Mobro 4000 leaves a New York port on March 22 with 6,000 tons of garbage bound for a southern landfill. The barge is rejected by the states of Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida, and New Jersey, as well as Belize and Mexico. After a journey of 173 days, the load, mostly paper, is ultimately incinerated near the Long Island landfill from which it had originally been taken. The trip of the Mobro is followed on television and in newspapers and creates the impression that the U.S. does not have enough places to dump garbage.

The Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel and the National Association of the Recycling Industries merge to create the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries.

1988 The EPA estimates that more than 70 percent, or at least 14,000 of the landfills operating in 1978 have since closed because they didn’t meet new higher landfill standards.

In an effort to divert waste from landfills, Assistant EPA Administrator Winston Porter sets a U.S. recycling goal of 25% to be met in the next four years. The goal is met in 1996.

Medical waste washes up on eastern U.S. beaches. One result is the Medical Waste Tracking Act, a two-year plan to set up procedures to track these hazardous wastes.

The Plastic Bottle Institute develops a material-identification code system for plastic bottle manufacturers. (This is our current #1-6 system.)

1989 Arizona archaeologist William Rathje recovers corn-on-the-cob intact after 18 years in an Arizona landfill, indicating that just because we put biodegradable trash in a landfill, doesn’t mean it will decompose and become smaller in size. People had thought that as food wastes decomposed in landfills, it would allow us to increase their capacity.

Laws requiring recycling to be an integral part of waste management have been enacted by 26 states.

1990 Nationwide, 140 recycling laws have been enacted.

McDonald’s announces plans to stop the use of polystyrene packaging of its food due to consumer protests.

1990’s Consolidators like Recycling Industries Inc., Philip Services Corp. and Metal Management Inc. emerge in the scrap business, changing the face of a family-run industry.

1992Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) establishes minimum standards for landfills, designed to make them safer. These standards include location, facility design and operating criteria, and closure and post closure care requirements, financial assurance, ground water monitoring, and corrective action. Because of the cost of meeting these requirements, 10,000 small municipal landfills are consolidated into an estimated 3,500 new, safer landfills, some of which are “megafills” that can handle up to 10,000 tons of waste a day. The new landfills are outfitted to prevent air and water pollution and limit the spread of disease by scavengers.

1994 The U.S. Supreme Court holds in its review of C&A Carbone v. Clarkstown, NY, that flow control, the practice whereby municipalities can direct the disposal of waste to designated facilities, is unconstitutional.

1995New York City law officials move to break the mob-controlled waste-hauling cartel in the city with indictments of 17 people, four trade associations and 23 companies.

1996 An attempt to pass a solid waste flow control bill in the U.S. House of Representatives fails.

1997 EPA increases America’s recycling goal to 35% by 2005.

1998Seven years of consolidation of solid waste companies reaches its peak when the largest in the U.S., Waste Management, merges with the number three company, USA Waste, whose management takes over the new Waste Management.

1999 The new number three hauler, Allied Waste Industries Inc., agrees to buy the number two company, Browning-Ferris Industries, in a deal worth more than $9 billion.

2000 Biocycle and Zero Waste America, a nonprofit organization, estimate that Americans recycled 33 percent of the waste they generated, and that .66 tons of waste were disposed per person.

2001 Biocycle and Zero Waste America estimate that Americans disposed .98 tons of trash for each citizen and 32 percent of the waste generated was recycled.

2002 The Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island was reopened to accept the 1.2 million tons of debris from the World Trade Center following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Litter: Intentional?

When was the last time you saw someone littering? It may be hard to remember. But litter doesn’t just appear—it’s the result of carelessness or intentionally bad behavior. Is there anything you can do? Knowing more about litter and where it comes from is a good place to start.

Why do people intentionally litter?

Keep America Beautiful, a national litter education and prevention organization, has found that people intentionally litter for three reasons:

They feel no sense of ownership, even though areas such as parks and beaches are public property.They believe someone else—a park maintenance or highway worker—will pick up after them. Litter has already accumulated so it’s OK for me to litter.

Rapid growth, increasing mobility, and improper disposal habits cause the existence, growth, and accumulation of litter.

Attitudes can also get in the way of responsible habits. Some people think it is “not cool” to be careful with their trash or to recycle cans and bottles. It is not uncommon to see people with others (or in groups) walking down the street eating and dropping their wrappers, tossing their cans, and flicking their cigarette butts. Getting people to change their habits and attitudes takes time and education, and this often doesn’t happen until the consequences get costly enough.

Accidental vs. Intentional Littering

According to national statistics, accidental littering occurs more frequently than deliberate littering. Littering can be a deliberate act such as throwing fast food wrappers and drink containers out of the car or leaving newspapers on a park bench. However, litter blows out of vehicles or from uncovered loads, animals get into curbside trash and the wind blows it around, or people toss trash into overfilled dumpsters and wind or weather cause it to be scattered about. People also drop, lose and forget things. In fact, a study in Pennsylvania has shown that as much as 65% of the rural litter is accidental. Of course this number varies from area to area.

Who litters?

Motorists and pedestrians are often the only ones blamed for litter; however there are actually seven primary sources:

Only twenty percent of litter is generated by people in motor vehicles and pedestrians. The litter is then blown about by wind and traffic or carried by water. It moves until trapped by a curb, vegetation, a building, or fence. Once litter has accumulated, it invites people to add more.

Problems caused by litter

When litter is on sidewalks or along roadways, it often gets flushed into storm drains during a heavy rain. Eventually this water leads to the nearest waterway or large body of water. People use this water either for drinking or recreation.

Almost 80% of ocean debris can be traced to land-based sources such as inadequately treated municipal waste, storm water runoff, beach use, and littering. This trash is washed, blown or dumped on land, eventually ending up on our beaches or floating out to sea, where ocean currents may take it hundreds of miles from its launching point. Seagulls dragging a piece of fishing line, pelicans with six-pack rings around their necks, or sea lions struggling to remove a piece of discarded fishnet are some common examples of the problems marine debris causes wildlife. In addition, sea birds, sea turtles and whales have been known to mistake floating plastic pellets and plastic bags for natural prey, such as fish eggs, jellyfish and squid. Ingesting plastic can cause internal injury, blockage of the digestive tract and starvation in these animals. Other impacts of marine debris include navigation hazards, such as plastic rope or line that may entangle propellers, or plastic bags and sheeting that may clog the intake valves to engines.

Careless dumping of household hazardous wastes such as paint, thinner, pesticide, oil, and fuel can percolate into the surrounding soil and cause significant ground water pollution.This can be a serious threat to homeowners who use wells for their water supply. Most homeowners do not have their wells tested until someone gets sick.

Damage caused by litter is by no means limited to humans. Important plant communities and wildlife habitats are lost to our waste each day. Many wild animals are injured or killed by litter carelessly tossed by humans. Small rodents like mice and chipmunks may be trapped in or cut by glass bottles. Ducks, geese, and other birds often get their heads and necks caught in plastic six-pack rings. Surface and groundwater become polluted and unable to sustain healthy plant and animal life.

Often people think that throwing food waste, such as apple cores or half-eaten sandwiches, out the car window is OK. The food will either be eaten by animals or naturally decompose over time. Roadside food litter does attract small rodents, and small rodents attract birds of prey subsequently hit by passing vehicles as they dive in to catch these feeding mice and other animals. Rehabilitation specialists at the Shaver’s Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Pennsylvania have determined that a significant number of the injured birds of prey that are received at their facility, have been hit by vehicles while diving in pursuit of their food.

Litter can be very dirty. Not only is it ugly, but it may carry germs. Scavengers such as rats are attracted to areas with lots of litter. They find their food among the trash and can pick up the germs and become carriers for diseases that may make people sick. In some places, we find hazardous waste such as used needles and other drug paraphernalia. People can get sick from the diseases they get from contact with these items.

Because litter is exposed to the elements, it may start to decompose. This can result in a foul smell. This means that not only do our parks and recreation areas look uncared for, but they become unhealthy and we have fewer places to play.

Litter is a huge problem to farmers. Cattle and other grazing animals can die from ingesting metal (known as hardware disease), glass and plastics that gets baled into hay or chopped into silage. Expensive repairs to combines and other harvesting machinery jammed by trash thrown into fields means downtime, lost crops if they get rained on, and costly loans to cover these expenses. Time and money lost repairing tractor tires damaged by broken bottles and shredded cans can mean the difference between survival and losing the family farm, particularly for farmers who already struggle in today’s economy. Even if the animals don’t try to eat the litter, they may get entangled in it and injure themselves. Veterinarian bills are also costly and if a mature dairy cow should die, it could cost the farmer $1500 to replace it.

What does litter cost?

Litter removal is costly. Nationwide, highway departments spend millions of dollars and many hours each year to pick up litter—money and time needed for more important services. Local, state and federal governments also spend millions removing litter left by careless park and forest visitors. Data on the cost of litter removal is not documented the same across the country. However, state budgets typically include funds for litter pick-up on state highways. Pennsylvania’s Department of Transportation spends $6 million annually picking up after people. Florida and Texas spend approximately $3 million each year, Kentucky spends $4 million each year, and the state and local governments of Louisiana expend nearly $10 million each year on litter removal and illegal dump cleanup combined.

The negative impact of litter also “costs” a community. The cost to a community that suffers from many littered areas can be very high when it comes to “first impressions”. Clean communities have a much better chance of attracting new businesses and residents than those where litter is common. Several cities have received negative feedback about their littered community from potential new businesses and families wanting to move to the area. These “missed opportunities” are costs that are hard to measure.

Litter wastes our natural resources. When cans and bottles are discarded on the roadside instead of being recycled, it means that even more resources must be used to create cans and bottles from new materials.