Industrial Revolution wastes

Once, the amount of waste produced in the United States was small and its impact on the environment was viewed as relatively minor. Times have changed. With the industrial revolution in the late 1800s, the country began to experience unparalleled growth. New products were developed, and the consumer was offered an ever-expanding array of material goods. 

The adoption of pollution prevention as a clearly differentiated approach to environmental improvement began in U.S. industry and policy during the late 1970s. While examples of improved efficiency and hence less waste had existed since the start of the Industrial Revolution, the distinct explosion of successes in pollution prevention did not occur until the mid-1980s. Figure 1 shows an approximate time line of this period. 

About 70% of the current CH4 sources are anthropogenic, with roughly equal contributions from fossil fuel-related industries, waste management systems, and enteric fermentation associated with raising livestock (Table 5). Of the natural sources, wetlands are 70% of the total and therefore a major research focus. About 60% of natural wetland sources and most rice paddies occur in the tropical latitudes. Another 35% are in northern latitudes, and 10% are in mid-latitudes. The combined contribution of natural and managed wetlands to global CH4 emissions is —32% at present, and perhaps 70% of all sources before the industrial revolution (Lelieveld et al., 1998). Estuaries are <9% of ocean CH4 sources (Middelburg et al., 2002). 

When a country is very sparsely populated, as was the U.S. prior to the Industrial Revolution, the extent of land, water and other natural resources seems infinite. Disposal of liquid and solid wastes in those days wasn t even thought of as pollution . In fact, most of the wastes were organic, and readily absorbed into nature without deleterious effects. With industrialization, and the related growth of urbanization, the volume of wastes grew dramatically, and included large percentages of materials that nature could not degrade and absorb. Some of these materials were health hazards, notably petroleum residues and, more recently, radioactive materials. 

Black chemistry stands for waste = pollution and conjures up images of the industrial revolution, black smoking chimneys and Blake s dark satanic mills. Red chemistry, on the other hand, denotes danger and evokes associations with incidents such as Bhopal and Seveso. Many chemical processes in use today are black or red, or both. Hence, the goal of the chemical industry is, or should be, the replacement of red and/or black chemistry vfith green alternatives. ... 

Factories have contaminated streams since the dawn of the industrial revolution, and governments have long taken notice. As early as 1901, a survey article could report that the only jurisdictions in the United States that lacked statutes to control water pollution—which was understood to include both industrial waste and sewage—were Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas, South Carolina, and Indian Territory (the future Oklahoma). By 1924, all 48 states had laws that covered industrial waste. Both surface water and groundwater were always understood to be vulnerable to contamination by the mid-nineteenth century, lawsuits over pollution of groundwater were numerous.16... 

It is characteristic of our social organization that we strike out boldly into new endeavors and fail to prepare for the reactions such endeavors may produce. We have entered into a socio-industrial revolution that has brought with it basic problems in conservation and waste disposal There is only one question are we going to recognize and put... 

For much of history, humans used waterways and bodies of water as waste dumps. When the human population was low, fewer people were exposed to the effects of pollution, and the sources were fewer and produced less pollution. During the Industrial Revolution of the nineteenth century, water pollution was recognized as a danger to public health. 

A waste product itself probably provided the foundation for the modern synthetic organic chemical industry. The Industrial Revolution of the early 19th century saw large volumes of a malodorous, black, sticky waste product generated from the production of coke from coal. The coke fuelled the growing steel industry and town gas was produced to power the urban environments which sprang up around the industrial wealth creation. 

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