I was taking out the trash yesterday, and I immediately thought of this sub-reddit, because I couldn’t place any of my trash in a historical context. Beer bottles? Plastic wrap for produce? Leftovers? It struck me as incredibly odd for a moment, that every almost single human today produces trash on a daily basis, and every household has at least one trashcan in their house and needs to find a way to routinely manage their own trash...

Did trash always exist? What forms did trash take?

If we were to travel a few centuries back - can we expect the average household to be producing something that can only be termed as “trash” ? (i.e. not food scraps that would become fertiliser, or broken plates or items that would likely be repaired, or at worst, not become a daily task)

And if we were to travel even more - to, say, ancient greece or ancient china, would there exist the concept of trash?

(If the scope is too long, let’s pinpoint a time and place in pre-industrial society: 1400s, England. Did households, castles, farms and the like produce any “trash” or have some conception of it similar to what we have today?)