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"trash is an inescapable fact of the human condition" Not really. There didn't used to be anything like as much. But what we did before wasn't necessarily bette
by ajb 2y ago
"trash is an inescapable fact of the human condition"
Not really. There didn't used to be anything like as much. But what we did before wasn't necessarily better.
Most consumer products were made of organics, like wood, cloth and paper; metals, and clay. Organics were burned or recycled, metals recycled (as now). Only broken clay was really waste.
Cities didn't collect trash - they collected ash. In Britain waste collectors are called "dustmen" because that's what they used to collect. But that meant that people were burning trash in their homes, along with their coal or wood. Then, re-using your trash as winter fuel was a nice economy. Now we know that in-home combustion isn't very healthy.
- vel0city 2y ago> Only broken clay was really waste. > Cities didn't collect trash - they collected ash. So is ash broken clay or is your first statement just incorrect?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- scoofy 2y agoIf you don’t think humans used to make trash, I have plenty of shell mounds to show you.
- pchristensen 2y agoAnd pottery shards.
- ggm 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Testaccio https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monte_Testaccio
- bredren 2y agoReminds me of this 2013 report on the earliest cat domestication (~3610 BCE): > The felid bones were found in an ashy matrix in three refuse pits, H172, H35, and H130, with animal bones, pottery sherds, bone tools, and some stone tools... https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1311439110 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.1311439110
- kemotep 2y agoTells are artificial hills that cities, temples, and forts were built on in Ancient Mesopotamia and other nearby places. Neo-Assyrian cities could have impressive fortifications 100 feet tall rising high above the surrounding landscape. And all built by filling in the lower levels with trash and dirt and building on top of it.