The garbage kings: An economic history of America's garbage industry, 1890--1995

This study explains how changing attitudes towards the urban environment affected the shape of America's garbage industry over the past century. Rather than rely on the apolitical, technology driven model favored by Alfred D. Chandler to explain the development of American industries, this paper focuses on the changing political economy surrounding the waste service industry which explains its evolution. This inquiry begins with a discussion of waste services as they existed at the end of the nineteenth century and concludes with the rise of integrated national waste service firms in the late 1970s. By focusing on the political and economic forces that influenced America's garbage business over the last one hundred years, this inquiry identifies four distinct phases, or "regimes," in the industry's development, which correspond to cycles in America's economic history.; During periods of economic prosperity, society and local government played a larger role in shaping the waste service industry, either by imposing new sanitation standards on private sector operators or replacing them altogether with municipally operated firms. The structure of the garbage industry reflected these shifts in public policy, as collection and disposal practices became more capital intensive and barriers to entry rose.; Economic crises reversed this trend, as municipal governments relaxed sanitation standards and systematically withdrew from the waste business, leaving the field to the private sector. Financial constraints forced these firms to innovate, as operators sought to provide the same level of sanitation with less money and fewer workers.; As prosperity returned, the waste industry's private sector grew, attracting investors seeking to capitalize on the growing demand for garbage services in post-war America. Some used the waste business as a means of concealing revenue from illegal enterprises, while others started building integrated firms that would eventually assume a national presence.; The paper concludes by examining the impact the environmental movement of the 1960s had on the industry, and how national waste service firms turned environmental legislation to their advantage in the 1970s by using new standards to bar smaller, less capitalized firms from the nation's lucrative garbage collection and disposal business.