Waste Management, Inc.

Early History

The success of WM—indeed, even the very existence of it and companies like it—has resulted from changes in the manufacturing landscape and consumption patterns beginning in the 1800s and continuing into the 21st century. The Industrial Revolution ushered in an age of factories, mass production, and urban living. The invention of the steam engine, the proliferation of railroads, and the development of the automobile contributed to the rapid economic growth of cities and a rising middle class. Both World War I and World War II initiated scientific advances in the service of the military that were then applied to consumer products for the growing middle class. The increased mechanization and mass production of consumer convenience items, accelerated by developments in chemistry, created industrial and municipal waste at an alarming and unmanageable rate. However, the still-young country had not developed a system for collecting its massive quantities of garbage. Many households fed their trash to the family pig or used a home incinerator; others dumped it in the streets or in nearby rivers or streams. Factories and municipalities, with no federal regulation, were free to dispose of waste by incinerating it, releasing toxic chemicals, or dumping it into bodies of water or unsanitary landfills, creating pollution. Even [Page 979]though scientists linked disease with the prevalence of garbage in the 1850s, the disposal of waste was largely unregulated and unchecked unless local or state governments intervened to regulate garbage and protect human health.

WM's history dates back to the 1890s, when Dutch immigrant Harm Huizenga began carting ashes and waste in Chicago. His Ace Scavenger Service was one of hundreds of small, private waste-hauling businesses working in U.S. cities at the time, and the business was successful enough for the family to continue operations after Harm's death in 1936. To address the insidious problem of waste, New York City was the first urban center to enact a public health code and create a municipal solid waste and recycling program. Appointed as the city's sanitation director in 1897, Colonel George Waring, Jr., utilizing his experience as a Civil War officer, waged war on garbage both through collection and public relations efforts. Within five years, 79 percent of cities in the United States followed suit and offered solid waste collection. Between that time and the close of World War II, a collect-and-dump paradigm remained dominant. With municipalities managing local garbage collection, they focused their attention on creating efficient, cost-effective strategies for removing vast quantities of waste.

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