RUBBISH-THE DUSTCART

With the modern emphasis increasingly on recycling as much waste as possible the use of the single dustbin for our household waste is very much a thing of the past.

With local authorities now providing an array of multicoloured bins and boxes for our sorted domestic waste there still remains the issue of getting the waste from the doorstep to the processing plant. Where would we be without the ubiquitous dustcart?

In the 1800s, waste collection in the country’s towns and villages relied on the use of man power and horse power with rubbish being loaded into small carts. In 1872, the Public Health Act was passed and this established new urban and rural sanitary authorities while the later Public Health Act in 1875 made the local authorities responsible for the removal of refuse and introduced the use of dustbins for household waste. The reliance on the use of the horse and cart continued well into the 1900s as details from the