1. Dawn of the dump: The oldest trash heaps, called middens, are in South Africa and contain shells roughly 140,000 years old. Middens—which may also include bones, charcoal, feces, and pottery shards—provide much of what we know about ancient diet and lifestyle.
2. In 500 B.C. Athens created the first municipal dump, requiring trash to be disposed of at least a mile from city walls.
3. Today Americans generate 472 billion pounds of trash every year, including 96 billion pounds of food—more than 300 pounds per person.
4. And that's only about 2 percent of the total waste stream. The rest is industrial refuse, including mine tailings, agricultural waste, construction debris, and exotics like "pickle liquor," an acid solution used to clean steel.
5. No, you're not less of a man if you let a garage do the work: One quart of motor oil, improperly disposed of, can pollute 250,000 ...
