I love the garbage truck. Every week, it comes and takes away my trash. All I have to do is put the trash can on the curb. Such a great service. I don’t have to bury my trash in my backyard, instead they bury it in someone else’s backyard.
Ok, now I feel guilty.
What life would be like if I had to bury all my own garbage in my backyard?
And what would happen if everyone had to do this.
If everyone had to bury their own garbage, people would certainly change their buying habits. Less packaging. Buying products that would last longer. All that stuff.
Although most likely to happen is that people would find creative places to dump their garbage elsewhere. Hence, having an official trash disposal service makes most sense for the common good.
Amazing that organized solid waste management didn’t exist before the late 1700s. And that was in London. In 1895, New York City became the first U.S. city with public-sector garbage management. (All sourced from wikipedia’s entry on History of waste management)
Wow. I might assuming wrong, but if you lived in NYC in 1890, you’d have to find a way to get rid of your own trash. Thank goodness we don’t have time machines. If anyone from our era showed up to a city in the 1800s, we’d be like, “yeah, where’s the garbage cans?” (We’d also wonder about where are the toilets, antibiotics, and nesting magnetic measuring spoons.)
Thank you garbage trucks!
Also, a footnote. Being curious if there was a National Holiday for garbage trucks, I googled: garbage truck days. All the results are various towns and their respective trash pick up days. LOL! Not what I was looking for. Perhaps the national holiday to celebrate garbage trucks is your weekly garbage day.