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History
A Brief History of Solid Waste Management in the US, 1950-2000 |
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Part 6: Collecting Solid Waste/No Longer Beasts of Burden. This part reviews the evolution of collection from the 1940s - when collection was done on the backs of men and animals - to the highly automated collection of today. Links to previous parts of our series may be found at the end of this article.
This short history of collection in the United States from 1940 to 2000 is a story of the evolution of equipment. This evolution was driven by the desire of those in the refuse/solid waste–collection business to collect more materials for less money. Other motives, just as important, were to improve collection equipment to protect the public health and lessen the demands on the work force that traveled the streets everyday collecting solid waste. Regardless of the motives, the evolution of solid waste collection from a horse-drawn, human-powered enterprise to one of machines reflects the rapid technology shift of the last 50 years of the second millennium. The 1940s-1950s
In the 1940s, collection in urban localities was provided by a variety of refuse carriers (e.g., collection vehicles). The changeover from man-powered and horse-drawn (photos 1 and 2) to motor-operated equipment was debated seriously by sanitation leaders for a number of years. This debate minimized demand for improvement in collection equipment. Consequently, the truck industry had invested little effort to develop specially designed refuse carriers in the years leading up to World War II. The point of collection was just about any place in a residential yard that could be imagined. Examples include the alley, the back door, the side door, sometimes the garage, and often curbside (usually with a setout, setback service). As collection organizations finally began to convert their collection fleets to motor-driven vehicles, they were forced to use equipment designed mainly for handling materials much heavier than refuse.
Early on, it was noted that the high-volume, lightweight nature of refuse required different equipment. Other special requirements such as short turning radii, onboard unloading devices, watertightness of collection bodies, and covers for collection bodies began to establish specifications that stimulated the development of specially designed refuse collection motor-driven equipment. Enclosed nonpacking bodies designed to handle high-volume, lightweight refuse represented early advances of especially designed equipment (photo 4). A cabover engine chassis was first used in collection to address the need for a short-turning-radius vehicle. It is interesting to note that even in the 1940s, divided bodies were developed to allow the collection of two different classes of refuse at the same time. Compacting bodies began to appear in the late 1940s. Serious development of improved collection equipment began in the late 1940s. The 1950s, however, can be considered one of the two most significant decades in the history of collection-equipment development; the other being the 1970s with the emergence of the sideloader. Municipal refuse-collection agencies, rather than equipment companies, were the early innovators in developing new residential collection equipment (see reference 1). These efforts, however, created an emerging market, and the manufacturing sector began to develop specially designed collection equipment. Early company entries include Gar Wood Industries Inc. and The Heil Company. End gates that were hinged to be side-opening, rather than top- or bottom-opening like dump bodies, improved the emptying efficiency. Mack International Motor Truck Corporation was one company that offered this improvement to Newark, NJ.
Elgin developed a collection body with a hopper that emptied into the top of the body. Looking at this unit suggests that it might have been the precursor to the front-end loader (photo 5). As the 1950s began, compaction bodies were being introduced into residential refuse-collection fleets. Early entries into the rearloader compactor-type refuse-collection body business were Roto-Pac (City Tank Corporation), Leach Packmaster (Elgin Corporation) , Collectomatic (The Heil Company - photo 6), Load-Packer (Gar Wood Industries), and Power Packer (Daybrook Hydraulic Division, L.A. Young Spring and Wire Corporation). Open-top trucks remained popular for collecting rubbish (see Note 1). Interestingly enough, some open-body trucks were equipped with a mechanical frontloading device, again perhaps a precursor to the front-end loader.
Between 1940 and 1960, the point of collection for residential collection remained essentially the same as before World War II. In the 1950s, private haulers working with manufacturers began to contribute to the development of specialized equipment for the commercial and industrial solid waste-collection business. Detachable-container collection systems for commercial and light industrial collection also began to appear in the late 1940s but truly emerged as "shelf item" equipment in the 1950s. Dempster Bros. can be attributed with the development of the detachable system. The Dempster "Dumpster" term became synonymous with the term detachable container. Initially detachable containers were picked up, hauled to the disposal site, emptied, then returned for use. "LoadLuggers" hoist-and-carry units were used for this service (photo 7). In just a short period of time, Dempster, working with a number of private haulers, expanded the concept of detachable containers for use with existing collection equipment. This resulted in the development of methods of emptying containers on-site, and smaller containers (1-4 yd.3) began to appear for commercial and industrial application. In the early 1950s, the rearloader winch system was devised to tip detachable containers into rearloader hoppers. Loadal became a major contributor to the development of detachable container systems in the mid-1950s. The transition to detachable containers resulted in measurable improvement in storage practices of businesses and industry. These improvements were both in a reduction of vectors around storage areas and a general improvement in the appearance of storage areas. The front-end loader became a standard piece of equipment for commercial and light industrial waste collection in the ’50s. Early models were equipped with straight-arm forks that endangered operators since the arms passed by the cab doors (loss of limbs and life). Eventually the goose-neck design that is the standard today was developed to address this problem. Rolloff equipment began to appear in service, primarily for heavy-industrial and construction applications, during the ’50s. The rolloff concept was adapted from technology used in the oil patches of Oklahoma and Texas. Large trucks with winch systems and rail-type frame bodies were utilized in the oil patch to lift, load, and transport large pieces of drilling rigs. The concept of this equipment was easily adaptable to the refuse industry, but emptying methods had to be developed. A number of private haulers can be credited with the development of this technology. The development of both the front-end loader and rolloff systems illustrated the fact that one man could collect large quantities of commercial and industrial refuse with the use of winch and hydraulic systems. Residential refuse-collection organizations began to examine ways to adapt the concept of one-man operation to residential service. 1960-1975 Up until the late 1950s, the evolution of specially designed equipment for refuse collection was focused primarily in the Eastern and Midwest US. In the late 1950s, however, the Western US became a vital contributor to the development of collection equipment. Labor has always been the most significant cost line item in collection. The success of front-end and rolloff systems that used only one man stimulated the development of one-man collection equipment in the West. Early in the 1960s, two companies - Loadal and Maxon - pioneered the development of the sideloader collection body that could be operated by one man. The sideloader led to the development of the drop-frame, stand-up driving stations (copied from the milk-delivery truck cab), the use of both right- and left-hand steering wheels, and ultimately the standardization of containers and fully automated collection. The development of the sideloader and the one-man collection system also resulted in the first serious attempts to change the point of collection. Where multiman systems could collect from multipoints of collection (e.g., alley, back of house, side of house), for one-man collection to be efficient, curbside collection had to occur. No doubt, this need for change prompted more public involvement in solid waste management than any other change that occurred during the time period of 1940-1980.
Supplemental transportation (transfer) of solid waste during the later 1940s - and as the decades came and went - began to be an issue for local governments. The emergence of transfer systems, as part of solid waste management, is not well documented. Early efforts, however, developed the tractor-trailer concept (photo 8). Barge haul was also practiced in those early years. By 1965, the federal government had entered what was being called solid waste (not refuse) management. Between 1965 and 1975, the US Public Health Service (USPHS) supported a variety of studies and research to improve collection practices (see Note 2). It funded a study in the late 1960s that compared the efficiencies of one-man and multiman collection crews. The result of that work provided documentation that one-man collection service was far more efficient than multiman service (see reference 2). A variety of other studies and research efforts were funded by the USPHS in attempts to develop new and improved collection equipment. In almost all instances, the focus of the effort was to find ways to reduce the number of men (see Note 3) needed to collect residential solid waste. In addition to focusing on reducing the size of collection crews, the USPHS also examined a variety of concepts and techniques to improve collection efficiencies. Some of these efforts included:
During this very active time of examination of collection by the USPHS, the two definitive works on routing and improving productivity in collection were developed.(see reference 3&4)
Perhaps one of the most notable contributions of the USPHS was its interest and support in developing automated residential collection. Its intent was to improve practice, improve worker safety, and reduce the number of collection-route workers. History will always remember early automated collection equipment attempts with such names as:
Today, all over the US and Canada, the descendents of Godzilla and the Son of Godzilla are providing fully automated residential collection services. In addition, the application of hydraulics to lift solid waste led to the emergence in the 1970s of semiautomated collection systems. 1975-1985 As the 1980s progressed, the demand for increased recycling led to the development of specially designed recyclables collection equipment. In solid waste collection, the historic trend has been to move to compaction and less manual-labor collection. No definitive trend has yet been developed for recyclables collection equipment. Perhaps this is because of the limited number of years that this part of collection has been a part of solid waste management. In addition, there is a lack of need for compaction, which offers many opportunities for future innovation. 1985-2000 Perhaps the most notable change in collection as the second millennium ended has been efforts to devise co-collection equipment and systems where residential solid waste and recyclables are collected at the same time. Currently there are limited equipment entries in this new collection practice. One system has been developed by The Heil Company from designs developed by Visalia, CA. Another new area of development is really a rebirth of the satellite/mother truck concept of the early 1970s. This entails an articulated collection body that can be disconnected from its tractor and transported to a distant point for emptying by a service tractor. In this approach, the prime tractor stays on route and an empty trailer is attached. Summary Progress in the collection of solid waste in North America during the period 1940-2000 has been measurable. If one had to list the most significant equipment and service changes that have occurred, that list would most surely include:
There is little doubt that the early years of the third millennium will see co-collection emerge as a common system. It would also seem that we can finally expect to see the emergence of definitive trends in technologies and systems to collect recyclables. Notes
References
H. Lanier Hickman Jr. is a member of MSW Management’s Editorial Advisory Board. To read the previous parts in this feature please click on the relevant links below:
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