According to the Trash Disposal Timeline it was in, or around, AD 200 that the Romans set up the first refuse collection service – two men would walk along the street collecting rubbish and throwing it in a wagon.
That has culminated in the current age of over packaging where black bags containing everything from the remains of the Sunday lunch to polystyrene and crisp wrappers and grease from the chip pan are mixed together, and put out under cover of darkness in a black bag for collection some time the next day.
We mark the passing of an age with this picture of black bags on West St Helen Street … This will be the final time they are collected in this way.
Wheelie bins are the future.