Beginning of waste management legislation

The Public Health Act 1848 was the first piece of legislation that specified how waste should be stored and removed. The Act specified that household waste should be placed in midden heaps (unlined holes in the groimd) next to houses, and when they were full the waste was dug out and taken away. It also provided for a Central Board of Health to be established with powers to supervise street cleaning and refuse collection amongst other things. 

The fourth cholera pandemic (1863-1875) claimed many lives in London and afterwards the Public Health Act 1875 was passed. One aspect of this was that it placed a duty on local authorities to arrange the collection and disposal of waste each week or face penalties if they failed to do so. Each resident was required to place their rubbish in a moveable receptacle the first dustbins. The subsequent Public Health Act of 1891 required local authorities to provide a sufficient number of scavengers to ensme the streets were kept clean in their district and that household waste was collected and removed. 

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