History of Waste Management and the Social and Cultural Representations of Waste

Abstract

The history of waste mirrors that of the societies that produced it, and their relationship with the environment and the resources they mobilized. Until the industrial revolution, the management of urban excreta was predominantly linked with urban salubrity, from the Roman cloaca maxima to the Parisian motta papellardorum. The quantity of waste produced remained small and the methods for collection and discharge often unsatisfactory, which led to frequent denunciations of urban dirtiness. Neo-Hippocratic medicine, which considered the tainted environment and air to be the principal causes of urban excess mortality, prompted the implementation of new policies and management techniques in Europe to clean up the cities. In addition, the value of most urban excreta intended either for agriculture or industry increased. Thus, from about the 1770s to the 1860s, salubrity and excreta recovery went hand in hand. From the 1870s onward, the fertilizer revolution, the rapid development of coal and, later, that of the petroleum industry and the search for more convenient and plentiful materials, undermined the recycling industry. Although some cities at first tried to fight the devaluation of urban by-products, they gave up during the interwar years. What was once a source of profit became a cost to society, and, until the 1960s, the aim of waste management was to reduce this cost. The environment became the receptacle for waste. The 1960s and 1970s were marked by an environmental crisis, a growing concern for the limits of the planet and a criticism of the industrial city. In this context, waste was regarded as the symbol of the aberrations of a consumer society. The production of waste continued to grow and the sanitary accidents as a result left a deep impression. Waste policies were implemented with mixed results. Developing countries also began to suffer from this curse of developed countries.