Why was waste disposal not a problem in the past?

Answer 1

Increase in population, products, and consumption has changed drastically. What makes you think it wasn't a problem? It's a sad commentary that so many otherwise educated people think pollution started in 1974 or something like that. Wrong. The FORM of pollution may have changed, but there has always been waste, and in many ways, it was a LOT worse back in the "good old days". For example, prior to the advent of the automobile, there would be an average of 60 to 80 THOUSAND horses a day traversing up and down the island of Manhatten. When it rained, the raw sewage, both human and animal, flooded the streets to six inches or more. Before the advent of sewers and public sanitation, you threw your garbage (food, wastewater, "night soil" etc) right out in the street. There was very little thought of any kind of basic sanitation, which is why we had those fun times such as the Black Death, the bubonic plague, and other little nasties. The main reason we think "waste" started in 1974 is that very few Western movies, or any depictions of life prior to 1900, show the huge mounds of horse dung, oxen dung, cow dung, chicken dung, and pig dung that was everywhere those days - its as if no animal ever had to defecate on the streets.