Page 46 - Solid Waste Analysis and Minimization a Systems Approach

24 BACKGROUND AND FUNDAMENTALS OF SOLID WASTE ANALYSIS AND MINIMIZATION

1776––The first metal recycling in the United States occurs when patriots in New
York City melt down a statue of King George III and make it into bullets.

1842––A report in England links disease to unsanitary environmental conditions,
helping to launch the “age of sanitation.”

1860s––In Washington, D.C., people still dump garbage and slop on the street,
while pigs, rats, and cockroaches flourish.

1874––In Nottingham, England, a new technology called “the destructor” provides
the first systematic incineration of municipal solid waste.

1885––The nation’s first garbage incinerator is built on Governor’s Island, New York.

1895––The New York City Street Cleaning Commissioner sets up the first com-
prehensive system for public sector garbage management in the country.

1896––Waste reduction plants, which compress organic wastes to extract grease,
oils, and other by-products, are introduced to the United States from Vienna,
Austria. The plants are later closed, since they emit noxious odors.
The first recycling center in the United States is established in New York City.

1899––New York City Street Cleaning Commissioner organizes the first rubbish-
sorting plant for recycling in the United States.

1900s––“Piggeries” are developed in small- to medium-sized towns in the United
States. At these facilities, swine eat fresh or cooked food waste. It is estimated that
75 pigs consume 1 ton of refuse per day. Food waste is recycled as pig feed until
the late 1960s.

1902––Seventy-nine percent of 161 cities in the United States surveyed in a
Massachusetts Institute of Technology study provide regular collection of waste
materials from people’s homes.

2.2.3 THE WAR AND INTERWAR PERIOD:
EARLY 1910s TO THE 1950s

On June 14, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne,
was assassinated in Sarajevo by a member of Young Bosnia, a group whose aims
included the unification of the South Slavs and independence from Austria-Hungary.
The assassination in Sarajevo set into motion a series of fast-moving events that even-
tually escalated into full-scale war. Major European powers were at war within weeks
because of overlapping agreements for collective defense and the complex nature of
international alliances. World War I had officially began. This point marked the begin-
ning of wartime economies around the globe and lasted until the 1950s, upon the end
of World War II. Wartime economies are very different from peacetime economies. All
resources must be mobilized and conserved to support the war efforts. The war effort
led to some major material exchanges to reuse items. The British government established
the earliest documented industrial waste exchange, called the National Industrial