Burn barrels (50-gallon metal drums) are still used in some
remote areas in southeastern Utah, where I currently live.
Garbage pickup is available only in towns so many people
still haul their stuff to a landfill (also on the way out)
or transfer station.  Lots of remote dwellings -- like
farms, ranches, and "country folk" -- had/have their own
illegal landfill.  While I worked for the Forest Service I
noticed that some things didn't get as far as the dump, but
ended up along a forest road usually on the fill side,
hidden in shrubs.  I can recall relatives in eastern
Washington using burn barrels while I was a kid (ca
1950s-60s) and they hauled what wouldn't burn to the dump.
Most people had a "trash trailer" or old pickup set in the
backyard for just this purpose.  I can also recall hiking in
the woods and finding trash piles below the roads.   I grew
up in Seattle and my parents did not burn or toss their
garbage, relying instead on the city's pickup service which
was in place by (at least) the 1940s.
----------
>From: Meta Janowitz <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: 20th Century Archaeology
>Date: Tue, Aug 8, 2000, 8:59 PM
>

>The current thread on Histarch has generated some discussion among
>those of
>us who grew up in the 40s and 50s on the topic of burn
barrels.  At
>least
>here in the New York/New Jersey area, burn barrels seem to have
>been an
>almost universal feature of back yards.  [A burn barrel was
a large
>(about
>4 feet high) metal barrel where a household would put papers and
>other
>thrash -- and the definition of what was suitable other
trash seems
>to vary
>widely.  The stuff would be burned down once a week or so and the
>ashes
>left to accumulate until the level got too high for safe burning.]
>Garbage collection was available but burn barrels were used anyway.
>Municipalities started passing laws against burning garbage in the
>1960s, I
>think, but does anyone have any thoughts on this practice?
>Meta Janowitz
>