Page 55 - Materials Chemistry, Second Edition

CAT3525_C02.qxd 1/27/2005 10:58 AM Page 26
26 Waste Management Practices: Municipal, Hazardous, and Industrial
afflicting Europe during this time. About 100,000 inhabitants of London died during the plague of
1665. Even the fashion of that period was affected by the squalor. Doublet and hose for gentlemen
and pin-up skirts for ladies were designed to keep their clothing out of the filth of the city thor-
oughfares; scented handkerchiefs and snuff were also used to help mask the stench (Alexander,
1993). The Great Fire of London in 1666 had some cleansing effect on the city environs, and com-
plaints about refuse in the streets eased to some extent (Wilson, 1977).
During the 1700s, it was ruled that London’s inhabitants could not bury dung within the city
limits, and could not take out their garbage after 9:00 p.m. By this time of night, lawmakers rea-
soned, any honest person was home in bed, and those roaming the streets were presumably up to no
good, i.e., sneaking somewhere to dump garbage (Kelly, 1973). This and other proposals such as
“the removal of ordure (filth, dung, manure) and rubbish lying in the streets” and a suggestion to
place the entire London area under a uniform public management so that all filth would be taken by
boat on the Thames to “proper distances in the country” were made to no avail (Wilson, 1977).
Profitable uses could be found, however, for virtually every type of waste generated during this
period, up to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. The British were rather enterprising when deal-
ing with certain wastes. Rush-covered floors of some houses during the Tudor period contained debris
up to 3 ft thick. This debris was rich in nitrates, and in the early 17th century was “mined” for saltpeter,
which was used in the manufacture of gunpowder (Wilson, 1977). Around 1815, the dust from a cen-
tury-old refuse heap at the bottom of Grays Inn Lane was extracted and sold to Russia to make brick
for the rebuilding of Moscow after Napoleon’s invasion. The refuse yards of Edinburgh, Scotland,
remained the same size for one hundred years because much of the waste that was brought in was sorted
and eventually sold (Wilson, 1977). The general composition of wastes of the period tended to be high
in ash, dust, and cinder. The composition of London’s wastes for over a century is shown in Table 2.1.
The Industrial Revolution had its beginnings in the 18th century, when the availability of raw
materials and increased trade and population stimulated new inventions and an intense reliance on
machine labor. Increased production led to greatly increased waste generation.
Charles Dickens and other writers have chronicled the living conditions of the working poor
in European cities during the 19th century. Industrial production was high priority for governments
and businesses, with public health and environmental quality being of lesser importance. Water
supply and wastewater disposal were, by modern standards, totally inadequate. For example,
Manchester, England, had on average one toilet per 200 people. About one sixth of the city’s
inhabitants lived in cellars, frequently with walls oozing human waste from nearby cesspools.
People often lived around small courtyards where human waste was piled, and which also served

TABLE 2.1
Composition of London’s Solid Wastes, 1888–2000
Component 1888 1892 1926 1967 2000
Fine dust and cinder 81.7 83.2 54.8 19.3 —
Vegetable, putrescible and bone 13.2 8.3 14.7 19.2 38.8
Paper — 4.3 15.0 34.0 19.5
Metals 0.4 1.0 3.6 10.6 3.6
Rags 0.4 0.4 1.8 2.4 —
Glass 1.3 1.4 3.0 10.9 8.4
Plastic — — — 1.3 8.1
Miscellaneous 3.0 1.4 7.0 2.3 21.7 a
Adapted from Wilson, D.G., Handbook of Solid Waste Management, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 1977.
With permission.
a “Fines/miscellaneous” plus textiles.