SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

Prepared by:
Engr. Ma. Cristina Macawile

All creatures constantly

make decisions about
what to use and what to
throw away

food

waste

... what to use and

what to throw away ...

A paramecium uses certain high

energy organic molecules and
discharges its product after
having extracted the energy in
the carbon-carbon or carbonhydrogen bond

A tale of two barges

As the coastal cities of the

young United States grew to
metropolitan regions, the
disposal of municipal refuse
was expediently achieved by
loading up large barges,
transporting them some
distance from shore and
shoveling the garbage into the
water.
Complaints : Some of the
refuse floated back to the
shore

A tale of two barges

The year was 1987.

The Mobro had been loaded in
New York with municipal solid
waste and found itself nowhere to
discharge the land , and ocean
disposal was now illegal.

The barge was towed from port to

port, with six states and three
countries rejecting the captains
plead to offload its unwanted
cargo.
Mobro is a story of an
entrepreneurial enterprise gone
sour.

A tale of two barges

An Alabama businessman, Lowell Harrelson, wanted to construct a

facility for converting municipal refuse to methane gas.

He recognized that baled refuse would be the best form of refuse for
that purpose.

He purchased the bales of municipal solid waste from New York City
and was going to find landfill somewhere in the East Coast or in
Carribean where he could deposit the bales and start making the
machines.

Unfortunately he did not get the proper permit for bringing refuse into
various municipalities.

Harrelson finally had to burn his investment in a Brooklyn incinerator.

Today,
Today, we manage the
discards of society with
engineering skill at
reasonable cost and
at minimal risk to the
public.

Environmental Engineering

Environmental engineering developed during the last

60 years as a major engineering discipline
It is now established as an equal alongside such
major engineering fields as civil, chemical, and
mechanical and electrical engineering.

Jobs for environmental engineer continue to increase,

and there is no sign that this will slow down.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

When humans
abandoned nomadic life
at around 10,000 BC
they began to live in
communities, resulting
in the mass production
of solid waste.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

The cities in the

Middle Ages in
Europe, pigs and
other animals
roamed the
streets and
wastewater was
dumped out of
window onto
passengers.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

In the Indus valley, the city of Mahenjo

Daro had houses with rubbish chutes
(200 BC - 1800 BC)
In the Indian subcontinent-Harappa and
Punjab had toilets and drain

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

2100 BC - The cities on the island of

Crete had trunk sewers connecting
homes.

800 BC Old Jerusalem had sewers

and a primitive water supply.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

500 BC In Athens, a law was passed to

require all waste material to be deposited
more than a mile out of town because
the piles of rubbish next to the city walls
provided an opportunity for invaders to
scale up and over the walls.
200 BC The cities in China had
sanitary police whose job it was to
enforce waste disposal laws.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

14 AD Rome developed a waste

collection program
1300 the black death, reduced the
population in cities and alleviated the
waste problem

Black Death

Black Death was one of the most

devastating pandemics in human history ,
peaking in Europe 1348 to 1350.
The Black death is estimated to have
killed 30 60% of Europes population.
Bubonic Plague was spread by the fleas
who lived on plague infected rats, and
such rats where ubiquitous on trading
ships. It started somewhere in Asia ,
possibly in China or in Central Asia.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1840s - The Great Sanitary Awakening was

spearheaded by a lawyer Edwin Chadwick (1800 1858), argued that there was a connection between
disease and filth.

1800s

A public health physician John Snow (1813 1858)

suspected that that the water supply from the Broad Street
pump was contaminated and was the cause of the cholera
epidemic.
He removed the handle and prevented people from drinking
the contaminated water thus stopping the cholera epidemic
and ushering the public health revolution.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1874 The first organized municipal recycling

program was attempted in Baltimore
1657 - The residents of New Amsterdam ( present
New York) forbade the throwing of garbage into
streets but the cleanliness of street was still the
responsibility of the individual homeowners.

1866 200 years after the first attempt at cleaning

up the streets, the Metropolitan Board of Health in
New York declared war on trash, forbidding the
throwing of garbage or dead animals into street.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

A typical horse
drawn solid waste
collection vehicle

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1887 The first incinerator was built on Governors Island in

New York.

1934 The fouling of beaches force the passage of federal

legislation, making the dumping of municipal refuse into
the sea illegal .
1935 The first hole in the ground that was periodically
covered with dirt, a precursor of todays modern landfill was
started in California.
1959 The American Society of Civil Engineers published the
first engineering guide to sanitary landfilling, which
included the compaction of the refuse and the placement of a
daily cover to reduce odor and vermin such as rats and
buzzards.

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1908 paper cups

replace tin cups in
vending machine
1913 corrugated
cardboard becomes
popular as
packaging

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1924 Kleenex facial tissues

are first marketed

1935- first beer can is

manufactured
1944 Dow Chemical
invents Styrofoam

SOLID WASTE IN HISTORY

1953 Swanson introduces TV diner

1960 Pop top beer cans are

invented
1963 Aluminum beer cans are
developed
1977 PETE soda bottles begin to
replace glass

Today,

In todays cities solid

waste is removed an
either is sent to disposal
or is reprocessed for
subsequent use.

Activity

Essay,

Bond paper short

handwritten
Discuss the economic impact of solid waste
generation and solid waste management in
the Philippines.