Early history[edit]

Throughout history, waste has been generated by humans .[1] In areas with low
population density waste generation may have been negligible[citation needed]. In
higher population areas even largely biodegradable waste had to be dealt with.
Sometimes this was released back into the ground water with environmental impact
like Nor Loch. The Maya of Central America had a fixed monthly ritual, in which the
people of the village would gather together and burn their rubbish in large dumps.
[2]

Modern era[edit]

Sir Edwin Chadwick.

Following the onset of industrialisation and the sustained urban growth of large population
centres in England, the buildup of waste in the cities caused a rapid deterioration in levels of
sanitation and the general quality of urban life. The streets became choked with filth due to the
lack of waste clearance regulations.[3] Calls for the establishment of a municipal authority with
waste removal powers were mooted as early as 1751 by Corbyn Morris in London, who
proposed that "...as the preservation of the health of the people is of great importance, it is
proposed that the cleaning of this city, should be put under one uniform public management, and
all the filth be...conveyed by the Thames to proper distance in the country".[4] Recent research
has shown that the first occurrence of organised SWM system appeared in London in the late 18th
century, namely more than 50 years before the Public Health Act. A waste collection and resource
recovery system was established around the 'dust-yards'. Main constituent of municipal waste was
the coal ash (dust) which had a market value for brick-making and as a soil improver (soil and
breeze products). Such profitability encouraged dust-contractors to recover effectively 100% of the
residual wastes remaining after readily saleable items and materials had been removed by the
thriving informal sector in the streets ('rag-and-bone men'). Therefore, this was an early example of
organised, municipal-wide solid waste management. The dust-yard system had been working
successfully up to middle 1850s, when the market value of dust collapsed. It was important in
facilitating a relatively smooth transition to an institutionalised, municipally-run solid waste
management system in England.[5]
In the mid-19th century, spurred by increasingly devastating cholera outbreaks and the emergence
of a public health debate that the first consolidated legislation on the issue emerged. Highly
influential in this new focus was the report The Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population in
1842[6] of thesocial reformer, Edwin Chadwick, in which he argued for the importance of adequate

waste removal and management facilities to improve the health and wellbeing of the city's
population. Chadwick's proposals were based on the false miasmatic theory of disease transmission.