Dale’s Daily Data: Garbage

It’s interesting to hear how New Yorkers are dealing with…..or not being able to deal with all the garbage left over as a result of the blizzard they had just before Christmas.  The bad weather combined with the Christmas holidays and all the junk left over from New Years celebrations has left piles and piles of garbage throughout the city. 

I imagine it must be a little like cities in Europe in the middle ages where residents just tossed garbage out of their windows into the street below.  They even threw out the contents of pee pots into the street, but in France they did it with a warning to anybody walking by shouting “garde a l’eau!” meaning “Watch out for the water!”.  It’s from this we get “loo” and, eventually, toilets.  That practice came to an end because of the plagues in the 14th century that wiped out millions of people.  They were a little more careful with their garbage and human waste after that.

Still a problem though was animal waste – especially horses.  People depended on horses to move materials, products and themselves around back then and horses produce a lot of waste – 22 pounds of manure and several gallons or urine each day.  And all that waste stayed in the street until street cleaners came along to clean it up. 

It was in the 1920’s that the idea of burying garbage was introduced. The modern way to deal with waste is recycling.  Today about 25% of waste and up to 50% of aluminum cans and paper is recycled.

What’s the difference between garbage, trash and junk?

Garbage is considered leftovers and waste from the kitchen. 

Trash is other household waste.

Junk is what’s left over when things are broken or destroyed.

Source: Did You Know dot org