Recycle

A dust cart with a refuse collector (dustman) ringing a bell to collect household rubbish. Coloured aquatint by W.H. Pyne, 1805.

Humans have discarded unwanted items since the stone age. As the population has increased the rubbish pits have grown in number, type and volume. Now in the UK millions of tonnes of waste are dumped in landfill sites every year. We are rapidly running out of space for landfill so have to embrace recycling.

Recycle Initially rubbish pits were picked over for high value item but in recent times the benefits of recycling have been more widely accepted. These benefits include:

The reduction of waste sent to landfills and incinerators.
Reduced levels of pollution.
Conservation of natural resources.
Reduction of energy consumption.
Recycling creates jobs, producing economic benefits.

Today Epsom & Ewell Borough Council collects almost 120,000 refuse and recycling containers each week. That’s about 6.24 million containers a year collected by just 35 driver/loaders (supported by some admin staff) using a fleet of 15 vehicles. Over half (54%) of all this collected waste is recycled but experts say that about 80% of all waste can economically be recycled so we still have a long way to go.

Flying Dustmen
Source ‘Street Life in London’, 1877, by John Thomson and Adolphe Smith