My mother's childhood recollections of
waste disposal and refuse collection mention that people 'carried' their dustbins out to the pavement
for the dustman to collect. This struck me as unusual in that dustbins are usually
rather heavy: During all the years of the twentieth century that I remember, dustmen came into
properties (like the back gardens) to collect dustbins, and currently
(2011) householders have to wheel their wheelie bins onto the
pavement for collection. I wondered how it was that people in the early
1900s managed to 'carry' their dustbins out to the pavement.
My conclusion was that society in the early 1900s actually had very little
to dispose of, and was in fact highly commendable in terms of its recycling.
- Probably most significantly, there were no bulky 'luxury' items to
throw away when buying new: no televisions, no fridges or freezers and
no washing machines or tumble driers. Accordingly there was none of the
bulky packaging that accompanies such items when they are delivered new.
- Probably almost equally significantly, there was no plastic. Food
bought in shops was weighed out at the point of purchase and put into
paper bags for women to carry home in their 'bag-for-life-style'
wickerwork baskets. The paper bags were
either put onto the coal fired range
which was burning throughout the year apart from in heat waves or put out in the
back garden for a weekly bonfire.
- When things broke, normal practice was to mend them rather than
throw them away. Travelling tinkers would repair leaking pots and pans
and even staple together pieces of broken china.
Knife grinders kept
knives sharp and other metal utensils were made to last as long as
possible.
- Newspapers, once read were put to use. They were cut into
squares and hung in the lavatory as
toilet paper; they were used to light that ever-burning coal fire as
well as
the weekly garden bonfires; they were used to wrap up left-over
food scraps for disposal; and - if there were still any spare - they
were sold as wrapping to fish and chip shops.
- It was considered entirely acceptable for clothes that one set of
children had outgrown to be passed on to younger children.
- Clothes were mended when they became thin or torn and when they
could be mended no longer, the bests parts were cut out and used to make
clothes for smaller children.
- Food was fresh. Although tinned foods were apparently around, there
is no mention in my mother's extensive recollections of them ever being
used in working class families. So there were no tins to dispose of.
- Milk was delivered from churns into householder's own jugs. So there were
no milk bottles or milk cartons to dispose of.
- Fruit and vegetable peelings and waste went onto garden compost
heaps.
- Other food scraps were either given to chickens and rabbits which
were eventually slaughtered for their meat, or to pets. What couldn't be
used probably formed what was
the main bulk of the waste.
- Whenever there was no life at all left in anything it was saved for the
rag and bone man. He didn't pay much but it was better than nothing. He travelled the streets to collect unwanted items,
including worn-out clothes, for which rag and bone men had their own markets. Rags
were used in paper-making and metals found their ways back to whatever
smelting works dealt with the metal concerned.
DID ASHES FROM THE COAL FIRES MAKE DUSTBINS
HEAVY OR WERE THEY 'RECYCLED'?
In the 1950s and 60s we used to have two dustbins - one for normal rubbish (not much in that) and the other for the ashes. That one was half to completely full and was pretty heavy.
Jill Seal
Compare this with the following:
In my family in the 1940s the coal ash and wood ash never went
into the dustbin. We saved it and spread it on the garden. This was thought to improve the heavy London clay
while also keeping the slugs at bay. We also took sacks of ash to our allotment to be dug into the soil,
and this was common practice. Even soot from the chimney was saved for a year so that it lost its sulphur content and
could be used for spreading around plants. People had done this for generations.
Families who were not interested in gardening would knock on our door or come to the allotment to buy fruit and vegetables, or eggs
from our hens in the back garden.
Peter Johnson
One key to the difference between these two statements is the date. The mid 1950s saw the end of the rationing and shortages due to the Second World War. People didn't have to find a use for everything the way they had done in the past. The other key could be the affluence of the household,
and their interest in gardening. This is not to say that there were not
a few families
in the early 1900s who wrapped their ash in newspaper and disposed of it
in the dustbin for the dustman to collect.
Pat Cryer, webmaster
So what went in dustbins for refuse collection was minimal; and very
little went into landfill. If a large item had to be disposed of,
dustmen would always take it for tip
of a few coppers. This was a source of income for
them because they invariably knew how to dispose of most things profitably.
In my own lifetime, I remember when black plastic rubbish bags came in:
there was industrial
action by dustmen who considered that they were losing a source of income by
not being able to pick over the refuse. I
can't remember the date or the outcome.
If you have an old photo which illustrates the
way of life that my mother describes, I would very much appreciate a copy.
Pat Cryer
In summary, my conclusion is that most waste for collection in the early 1900s must have been made up of
only miscellaneous incidentals and food scraps - of which there would have been
relatively few, because food was hardly ever wasted - see the page about
food in the early 1900s. Larger items did
occasionally get 'thrown away' as far as householders were concerned, but as
they were usually recycled in some way by the dustmen, they seldom went into
landfill.
Incidentally personal waste products from nightly use of chamber pots and
visits to outside lavatories were also put to use on compost heaps.
This website Join me in the 1900s is also known as
Join me in the 1900's and is ©
Pat Cryer.
