Talking Trash

Trash cans haven’t always been around for families to dispose of their trash in. So what did they do with their garbage? That depended on where they lived.

Farmers and their families turned food scraps into pig slop. Of course, pigs will eat anything, even dead bodies, so who knows what was fed to them. What wasn’t fed to the pigs was buried in a hole in the ground or burned. So for those who lived on farms, trash disposal wasn’t that much of an issue.

But what about those who lived in the cities, especially those in apartment buildings? They wouldn’t own their own property to dig holes and bury it. Tenants might own pets, but it is doubtful they would have their own pigs. And burning trash inside an apartment probably wouldn’t be a good idea if you wanted to keep your apartment.

What options were left? Residents didn’t want the trash to pile up inside their home, so they simply threw it out the window and onto the street. If there was already too much garbage in the street—it wouldn’t take long for it to accumulate—it could be hauled to a river or some other body of water and dumped. Thinking about the stench all of the trash plus the fact that horses would urinate and defecate on these same streets makes me thankful for trash cans, garbage men, and the system of waste disposal we now have. And it also makes me thankful that everyone doesn’t travel by horse.

Pigs will eat anything. A lot of small towns and cities had pigs set loose on the streets so they would eat the trash. That would help the trash problem, but pigs would also leave behind their own kind of trash.

All of the filth in the streets only led to disease. Something had to be done. The streets had to be cleaned by something other than pigs and vultures. Trash didn’t need to be thrown there in the first place.

Laws to keep trash from being dumped in the streets were passed and ignore. In 1757, Ben Franklin started the first street cleaning service, and the public was encouraged to dig pits—where I don’t know—to dispose of their waste.

In 1875 England, the first trash bin (trash can) appeared and weekly garbage collection began. Somewhere between 1885 and 1900, trash cans also appeared in America.

The trash can is one item that I’ve always taken for granted, and it is a necessity. You need at least two of them in your house: one for the kitchen and one for the bathroom.

Trash cans can be bought just about anywhere. And to be honest, I never thought about how important a trash can was until my recent purchase of a new one. I was used to the trash bags breaking if the trash in them weighed too much. And every so often, of course, I ended up with a defective trash bag that would bust and send my garbage spilling across the bottom of my trash can and across my kitchen floor. Because of this, the trash can never stayed completely clean. Never. And that didn’t please me.

But the simplehuman trash can I had bought and put in my bathroom was perfect. My simple Dollar Store trash can needed to be replaced with one that my dog couldn’t get into. Precious was the perfect dog, but when she was mad at me, her one form of rebellion was to go and pull things out of the bathroom trash can. That had to stop. So I bought a trash can that had a lid on it, a lid that could only be opened by stepping on a pedal. Perfect. Precious never did figure out how to open it.

The simplehuman trash can I chose for my kitchen is almost too pretty to be a trash can. When you step on its wide steel pedal, the lid soundlessly opens. When your foot moves off the pedal, it closes just as quietly. But a trash can without a trash bag wouldn’t be much use.

The trash bags (liners) that simplehuman makes for what has to be the ultimate trash can are super strong; they make all other trash bags seem flimsy in comparison. Have you ever had your trash bag slide off the lip of the can and fall down into the yucky trash? The simplehuman trash bags fit so securely there is no chance of this happening.

Any trash can would be an improvement over having to throw your trash onto the street or into a body of water, but this simplehuman trash can will spoil you.

Amazon LInks:
simplehuman 10 Liter / 2.3 Gallon Stainless Steel Small Semi-Round Bathroom Step Trash Can, Brushed Stainless Steel

superhuman 45 Liter / 12 Gallon Kitchen Step Trash Can with Liner Pocket, Grey Plastic with Stainless Steel Liner Rim and Step Pedal

Writing Prompts:
What if trash cans had never been invented? What would a day in your life be like without any trash cans?

What was the first trash can like?

I’m sure that pigs set loose in towns and cities thought they had won the food lottery. Write a story about one or more of these pigs.

What if you found a body in your trash can?

To learn more about the history of the trash can (and maybe find some more facts that will inspire stories), visit the two sites below:

The History of the Trash Can (and All Its Dirty Secrets)
A Garbage Timeline