1921
- San Francisco began regulating scavenger service;
mid-1930s - set
rates, required permits for operation; awarded exclusive refuse
collection licenses for city to Scavenger's Protective
Association (financial district, surrounding neighborhoods),
Sunset Scavenger Company (outlying residential districts);
licenses still held today; 1935
- two collection companies formed Sanitary Fill Company (now SF
Recycling & Disposal, Inc.) to develop disposal capacity for
increasingly large amount of refuse overwhelming San Francisco;
first of number of specialized subsidiaries that companies
jointly owned; 1965
- Scavenger's name changed to Golden Gate Disposal Company;
1973 - Sunset
renamed Envirocal; 1983
- Golden Gate Disposal reorganized as Norcal Solid Waste
Systems; 1986 -
acquired by 570 employees, their Employee Stock Ownership Plan;
1987 - acquired
Envirocal; became one of nation's ten largest 100 percent
employee-owned companies (substantial minority representation
among shareholders); May 2009
- name changed to Recology; two dozen subsidiaries provide solid
waste services to more than 50 communities, exclusive service
provider in San Francisco; one of nation's first urban recyclers
(material recovery facilities, construction and demolition
debris recycling, large-scale composting of food and organic
wastes).
(Air & Waste Management Association;), Bill
Beck (2007). Environmental
Stewardship in a Century of Change; 1907-2007: A History of the
Air & Waste Management Association's First 100 Years. (Pittsburgh,
PA: Air and Waste Management Association, 64 p.). Corporate
historian. Air & Waste Management Association; Air quality
management --United States.
(Waste Management), Timothy C. Jacobson
(1993). Waste Management: An American Corporate Success Story.
(Washington, DC: Gateway Business Books, 340 p). Waste
Management Inc.; Refuse disposal industry--United States.
Kaveri Gill (2009).
Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading
Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy. (New
Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 280 p.). Consultant with
the Planning Commission of India. Plastics industry and trade --
India -- Delhi; Ragpickers -- India -- Delhi; Plastic scrap --
Economic aspects -- India; Kunststoffabfall; Recycling; Armut;
Delhi. Multiple
deprivations experienced by those working in informal waste
recovery, plastic recycling economy of Delhi;
specialization, capital, value in various segments of
labor-intensive, 'green' informal market; complex, at times contrary, policy
reality binding poverty and deprivation, formal and informal
markets, state and citizenship in contemporary urban India.
Benjamin Miller (2000).
Fat of the Land: Garbage in New York: The Last Two Hundred Years.
(New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows, 414 p.). Former New
York City Sanitation Department Official. Refuse and refuse
disposal--New York (State)--New York--History; Refuse and refuse
disposal--Health aspects--New York (State)--New York; Refuse and
refuse disposal--Social aspects--New York (State)--New York.
Heather Rogers (2005).
Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of Garbage. (New York,
NY: New Press, 224 p.). Journalist. Refuse and refuse
disposal--United States--History.
Elizabeth Royte (2005).
Garbage Land: On the Secret Trail of Trash. (New York,
NY: Little, Brown, 320 p.). Refuse and refuse disposal--New York
(State)--New York.
Carl A. Zimring (2005).
Cash for Your Trash: Scrap Recycling in America. (New
Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 220 p.). Recycling
industry--United States--History.
History of scrap recycling, from
colonial times to the present.
_________________________________________________________
Business History Links
The Garbage
Museum (Connecticut Resources Recovery
Authority)
http://www.crra.org/pages/edu_museums.htm#htfd
Trash-o-saurus, a dinosaur made from a ton of trash, which is
how much trash an average person throws away in a year! Guests
may walk through a giant compost pile, meet resident compost
worms and discover how much energy savings is derived from
recycling. Watch what happens to recyclables in a "sky-box" view
of the tipping and sorting process. From the mezzanine walkway,
visitors can follow glass and plastic containers, cans and
newspapers through the sorting process and on to the end of the
line where items are crushed and baled for shipping to
processors, who turn them into products.
The Trash Museum
(Connecticut Resources Recovery Authority)
http://www.crra.org/pages/edu_museums.htm#htfd
6,500 square feet of educational exhibits beginning at the
Temple of Trash. Learn about the problems of old-fashioned
methods of disposal, such as the "town dump." From problems, the
tour moves to solutions, including explanations of source
reduction, recycling, resource recovery and landfills. During
the tour, watch our new single-stream recycling facility in
operation. Visitors can follow newspapers, cardboard, junk mail,
bottles, cans and plastic containers from the tipping floor,
through CRRA's new state-of-the-art processing equipment and see
them crushed or baled. Prepared recyclables are then shipped to
markets and made into new products. A mural by Higganum artist
Ted Esselstyn depicts the history of trash management from
pre-historic times to today.
