Garbage

Lore & Background

Garbage as a general category of discarded material, with historical distinctions between wet and dry waste that have since dissipated.

Reader's Guide

In urban areas, garbage of all kinds is collected and treated as municipal solid waste; garbage that is discarded in ways that cause it to end up in the environment, rather than in containers or facilities designed to receive garbage, is considered litter. The most common method of garbage disposal are landfills, in which garbage is buried underground or piled in a collection pit. Modern landfills often use trash compactors to compress garbage into a smaller space. In incineration, waste is burned to produce power. Recycling and composting have been used to decrease the environmental impact of garbage disposal.

Did You Know?

• The word garbage originally meant chicken giblets and other entrails, as seen in a 15th century cookbook.
• In the 1880s, material to be disposed of was divided into four categories: ashes, garbage, rubbish, and street-sweepings.
• Only a small fraction of garbage that is generated becomes litter; the vast majority is disposed of in ways intended to secure it from entering the environment.