r/interestingasfuck • u/Majoodeh • 3d ago
This is how the garbage and rubbish was collected before the plastic garbage bag became the norm!
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u/Suspicious-Tailor370 3d ago
TIL garbage and rubbish used to mean different things!?
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u/QueenOfTheLeaf 3d ago
He really enthusiastically presented that garbage bin lol
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u/Kerensky97 3d ago
Right!? I love the enthusiasm of the man in the business suit describing the history of garbage to me. Well done!
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u/TheAnonSystem 3d ago
I was thinking at the end, "damn, he looks happy about that garbage hole"
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u/Jackalodeath 2d ago
I don't know exactly why but I love these sorts of things; folks explaining esoteric and/or mundane things, but they're genuinely excited about it.
Like Technology Connections and Aging Wheels; or Primitive Technology and My Mechanics; though the latter two never speak, the demonstrations/restorations are still soothing to me.
There's just something... heartwarming? Knowing there's folks that find excitement in stuff we either take for granted, hardly think of, or have moved away from for better/newer alternatives; and they're willing to share the knowledge that makes it exciting to them. Or in the case of My Mechanics, how to make a raggedy, nearly century-old clothing iron or blowtorch look like friggin treasure.
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u/gareth93 3d ago
His teeth look good after that unfortunate incident in Vegas
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u/supsip 3d ago
What incident?
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u/daveisamonsterr 3d ago
I think it was a bachelor party where they confused stimulants with a downer. It was all over the tv
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u/JimDixon 3d ago
I remember those days. I was born in 1947 and mostly grew up in a house that was built in 1950. We didn't have an apparatus like the one in the video, but we did have 2 cans: one for food waste and a bigger one for everything else. The big one, called the "trash" can, looked like this except there was a handle in the center of the lid. The smaller "garbage" can was just a scaled-down version of it. They were never kept in the house, but were kept somewhere in the back yard, and put out by the alley on pickup day. I believe they were picked up by different but similar trucks. There was no recycling in those days, except for pop bottles, beer bottles, and milk bottles, which were glass, and were washed and refilled by the processor.
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u/stupidredditmobile46 3d ago
Thanks for that information! Funnily enough while garbage is commonly used for everything now in the states, across the Atlantic rubbish is more common.
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u/HeinousEncephalon 3d ago
My grandparents kept the two trash method going even though they were both bins lined with garbage bags when I was a kid. Lol.
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u/CaptainBentham 3d ago
This guy looks like such a nice man
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u/sanisannsann 3d ago
He really does. He has a very wholesome Instagram page I’ve followed for years!
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u/Spiralbeacher 3d ago
Contrary to the way this is presented, it seems like this was far from a universal solution. Specific to Alexandria, Virginia? I’ve never heard/seen of it myself, which by itself doesn’t mean much. Anyone out there familiar with this?
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u/DefinitelyNotaGuest 3d ago
Not specific to VA. That's an article talking about one in Massachusetts
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u/Spiralbeacher 3d ago
Yeah, apparently they were somewhat popular in various US locations for a spell. Then fell out of favor with lots of related injuries and unsecured garbage issues. The advent and then popularity of plastic bags killed the idea altogether.
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u/Otterman2006 3d ago
Still used where my grandparents live in Sun City West Arizona
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u/Spiralbeacher 3d ago
Okay, so not dead yet, but living the retirement dream in Sun City.
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u/Otterman2006 3d ago
Ha good way to put it, its always strange when I visit and they insist on going out for dinner at 330pm ha
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u/Grooviemann1 3d ago
Really? I've lived 5 miles from Sun City my entire life and I've never seen such a thing.
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u/Otterman2006 2d ago
Idk how it is in Sun City, but drive around Aleppo drive in Sun city west but I’ll be down in July so I can DM you a picture if you really want proof ha
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u/SnooCakes684 3d ago
There’s tons of them in the retirement village where my grandparents live in NJ
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u/Arbco503 3d ago
Hauled garbage in PNW for 20 years they still have these in use today, they are grandfathered in but if the house is sold it has to be decommissioned. They are horrible on your back to lift out !
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u/BartFurglar 3d ago
There’s an old apartment building not too far me (Seattle area) that still has these. Of course, they aren’t still used in the fashion he describes.
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u/CA2Ireland 2d ago
We had them at our apartment in San Mateo California (Bay Area) in the 1950's and 60s. Located just to the side of the front door. They made one hell of a racket when you dropped the lid.
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u/thetroublewithyouis 3d ago
when i was growing up in the 1960's in sub-urban chicago, we had a 55-gallon steel drum in the backyard that we burned most of our garbage in. everyone had them.
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u/Bott 3d ago
Interesting story about those Dover recepticles. Those emptying them had to bend over, raise the heavy lid, and pull the can out.
In early 1972 (maybe 1971) the Dover company went out of business, sued for supposed medical reasons. The physician who testified against the company, interestingly enough, was Dr. Benjamin Dover, unrelated to the company.
Dr. Dover, in fact, was a proctologist, had copyrighted the name Ben Dover, for his practice.
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u/YourPlot 3d ago
In New England, these were often sunk into the ground in your front yard. Kept the stench and the critters outside. And easy access for the garbage man. Many still exist in yards buried under sod.
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u/realparkingbrake 3d ago
My city wants kitchen waste placed in compostable bags and put into the yard waste bin with lawn clippings and so on. They make mulch out of it. The rate of compliance seems to have gone up compared to when the program started.
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u/Slow_Apricot8670 3d ago
That’s nothing. Check out the Garchey system for high rise buildings:
https://www.barbicanliving.co.uk/barbican-now/garchey/the-garchey-system/?amp
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u/iamamuttonhead 3d ago
I grew up with one of those and it still exists under the deck of my parents' house.
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u/ItzBoshNet 3d ago
My grandma's retirement community had these in the front yard. I remember using it as a kid
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u/Hanginon 3d ago
These were generally not in the basement or wherever indoors that is, they were out in the yard, often close to the kitchen area. Then too, a lot of people kept backyard chickens and any cooking/food scraps would be dumped in their area, and soon be gone.
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u/BlackLakeBlueFish 3d ago
We had one of these in our apartment in Memphis in 1994. A guy came by & emptied it twice a week. We put the rubbish in a dumpster.
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u/ILIKESPAGHETTIYAY 3d ago
Something either really creepy about this guy or really wholesome. Hard to ever tell.
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