I think it’s quite a bit more complicated than this. The concept of disposing of something always existed, but for most of human history that meant just leaving waste where it fell or at most tossing it at the edge of the village.
It’s only once larger settlements appeared that a need to concentrate waste in one location to avoid despoiling the entire area became necessary. This was greatly compounded with the invention of manufactured materials that don’t biodegrade like glass and plastic. There was no other solution to this than to concentrate and bury waste so it didn’t end up everywhere.
That’s what I’m getting at. Biodegradable refuse is one thing, maybe once civilization grows you can’t just toss your apple core wherever. Central composting is fine.
But it’s exactly once non-biodegradable trash enters the picture that the problem arises. If, the first time someone just tossed out some artificial thing, people said “What are you doing? That’s gonna stay there”, maybe we would have taken more care in the things we produce and given more consideration to their lifespan.
I think it’s quite a bit more complicated than this. The concept of disposing of something always existed, but for most of human history that meant just leaving waste where it fell or at most tossing it at the edge of the village.
It’s only once larger settlements appeared that a need to concentrate waste in one location to avoid despoiling the entire area became necessary. This was greatly compounded with the invention of manufactured materials that don’t biodegrade like glass and plastic. There was no other solution to this than to concentrate and bury waste so it didn’t end up everywhere.
That’s what I’m getting at. Biodegradable refuse is one thing, maybe once civilization grows you can’t just toss your apple core wherever. Central composting is fine.
But it’s exactly once non-biodegradable trash enters the picture that the problem arises. If, the first time someone just tossed out some artificial thing, people said “What are you doing? That’s gonna stay there”, maybe we would have taken more care in the things we produce and given more consideration to their lifespan.