A Brief History of Solid Waste Management in the US, 1950-2000

In researching for this series on the evolution of solid waste management during the past 50 years, it is clear that those of us in the business are very poor historians. Our field lacks a central repository of historical documents. Our field also lacks, because of the fluid nature of employment in the field, an institutional memory of what has transpired. Consequently, we found ourselves using the most elementary but classical way of tracing historical events – by talking to our elders. Hopefully, this small and modest effort will help ensure their place in our history and our future.