A Short History of the Trash Can and Landfills
Hundreds of years ago people would just throw their garbage in the street. You can imagine what the cities must have smelled like. Then people realized that diseases were caused by all that trash. So they would bury their trash or burn it. Sometimes they would dump it in a river or a lake. This was a big problem as people started throwing away more things.
Not until around 1875 did cities decide to make it a law that you couldn’t just throw all your garbage in the street and so they created trash cans. The trash cans would be picked up and taken to a huge incinerator (fireplace) and burned. But then can you imagine what the air was like with all that smoke?
In 1937 the very first landfill was opened in Fresno, California. Landfills are large holes where all the trash is dumped and then covered up. But that was a long time ago. Now, after so many years, our landfills are getting all filled up. That’s why we need to reduce the amount of garbage we throw away. Part of that solution is composting our organic waste.
