Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Table 7.2 Waste removed in
some cities, circa 1930
(g inhab
−
1
day
−
1
)
London and suburbs
830
Zurich
630
Paris
770
Berlin
Summer: 370
Winter: 584
agricultural and industrial wastes added to the mountain of waste already created by
households. In this area however, Germany and the Netherlands stood out. In
Germany, until 1945 the political system under autarchy favored recycling;
64
yet
land
,
65
such
as the 60 m high mound of refuse that stands near Leipzig. In the Netherlands, a
comprehensive program was started in the 1930s for the agricultural recovery of
household garbage. In the 1960s, 200,000 tons per year of compost was produced
from the garbage of two million people (20 % of the entire population). This greatly
contributed to the development of horticulture and particularly, after 1955, to
lls can still be found as parts of
“
the tectonic landscape [translation]
”
ower
bulb cultivation.
66
The Second World War also blurred the big picture. On the one hand, the
shortages that characterized the war and the years following the con
ict led to a
reduction of garbage production and a renewed interest in certain recovery pro-
cesses; however this was considered a short-term situation and, considering its
causes, undesirable. On the other hand, the destruction caused by bombings posed a
real problem to urban administrators once the con
ict ended. This was particularly
the case in Berlin where two-thirds of the buildings were destroyed in 1945. The
near absence of transportation made the disposal of the rubble dif
cult, and it had to
be piled up locally. Thus about 30 hills of rubble up to 100 m tall erected towards
the end of the 1940s, mostly by female workers (the Tr
ü
mmerfrauen).
7.5 1970s
-
Today
7.5.1 The Environmental Crisis
During the environmental crisis, which originated in the 1960s and 1970s, scien-
tists, intellectuals, artists, journalists and citizens in most developed countries
(although to varying degrees in each country)
nally denounced the pernicious
effects of industrialization, consumption and even development. As early as 1948,
Fair
eld Osborn published his internationally acclaimed topic, Our Plundered
64
The same occured in Italy some years before. Giuntini, op. cit., p. 70.
65
Joulot, op. cit, p. 53.
66
Houter and Stolp (
1968
).
