History of Waste Management - Timeline of Events

Timeline of Events

Events in the history of waste management
Date Location Notes
1 6500 BC North America Archaeological studies show that a clan of Native Americans in what is now Colorado produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste a day.
2 500 BC Athens Greece First municipal dump in the Western world. Regulations require waste to be dumped at least a mile from the city limits.
3 New Testament of Bible Jerusalem Israel The valley of Gehenna (also called Sheol) is a dump outside of the city that periodically burns. It becomes synonymous with "hell": "Though I descent into Sheol, thou art there."
4 1388 England English Parliament bars waste disposal in public waterways and ditches.
5 1400 Paris France Waste piles so high outside of Paris gates that it interferes with city defense.
6 1690 Philadelphia Rittenhouse Mill, Philadelphia produces paper from recycled fibers originating from waste paper and rags.
7 1820s London, England Almost 100% of the waste collected by "dust-men" is recycled/recovered/reused through manual separation and sieving in "dust-yards", the main product being the fine fraction of coal-ash, remaining after coal burning in households ("dust"). The system had many similarities to informal sector recycling, prevailing in today's environmentally developing countries.
8 1842 England Edwin Chadwick's Report of an Inquiry into the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain linked disease to filthy environmental conditions. The "age of sanitation" begins.
9 1874 Nottingham England A new technology called "The Destructor", patented by Albert Fryer and built by Manlove, Alliott & Co. Ltd., provides the first systematic incineration of refuse in Nottingham, England. Until this time, much of the burning had been incidental, a result of methane production.
10 1885 Governor's Island New York First waste incinerator is built in United States.
11 1889 Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., reports that the country is running out of appropriate places for refuse.
12 1896 United States Waste reduction plants for compressing organic wastes arrives in US. Later closed because of noxious emissions.
13 1898 New York New York opens first waste sorting plant for recycling.
14 Turn of the 20th century Waste problem seen as one of the greatest problems facing local authorities.
15 1900 Intensive pig farming is developed to consume fresh or cooked waste. Later, in the mid-1950s, an outbreak of vesicular exanthema of swine virus results in the destruction of thousands of pigs that had eaten raw waste. A law is passed requiring waste to be cooked before feeding it to swine.
15 1916 New York City New York City citizens produce 4.6 pounds of refuse per day.
17 1914 United States Approximately 300 incinerators operating in the US for burning waste.
18 1920s Landfills become a popular way to reclaim swamp land while getting rid of trash.
19 1954 Olympia, Washington The city of Olympia, Washington, pays for return of aluminum cans.
20 1965 United States First US federal solid waste management laws enacted.
21 1968 Companies begin to buy back recyclable containers.
22 1970 United States First Earth Day celebrated. Environmental Protection Agency created.
23 1976 United States As a result of the 1974 oil embargo and discovery (or recognition) of Love Canal, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) is created to emphasizing recycling and waste management.
24 1979 United States EPA issue criteria for the prohibition of open dumping.

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