After seeing an old metal trash incinerator in a school restroom, I started to think about this topic. The incinerator looked heavy, clumsy, and menacing. The type of fixture that would make you pause for a moment to consider what people were doing at that time. When I began to research, I found that the incinerator was part of something much larger. In the past, trash incinerators were popular because people wanted their trash disposed of quickly and burning the trash was a quick fix for getting rid of it.

Burn It

Burning trash was an easy solution to dispose of garbage for a very long time. The pile of trash shrunk to a small pile of ashes. It appeared clean and efficient. Incinerators were installed in homes, apartment buildings, schools, and hospitals. Many people did not use an incinerator, instead they used a burn barrel in the yard.

This was normal. Smoke, stench, and ash were just a part of the daily lives of many.

At Home

Every home and household approached the fight against trash differently. Some burned their trash. Others buried their trash. Others hauled their trash to a local landfill. Some reused containers (jars, tins), rags, and cardboard until they fell apart. Animal food waste may have been fed to animals. Returned bottles could be redeemed. Scrap metal could be stored.

Each house or family approached managing trash with their own method.

In Schools

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