I was doing the random browsing that I prefer to call research this morning and stumbled upon this old picture of an excavation. These British naval types are satisfying their curiosity by mucking about in an ancient dump/tip/midden. I used to do this myself back when I was a kid. I grew up in a heavily forested area of Canada. In the days before petroleum powered machinery, lumberjacks had little choice but to remain at their worksite for weeks at a time in little encampments. Every one of these would have its own little trash heap. I used to examine the glass and galvanized metal objects that remained in these when I was hiking in the woods.
I also occasionally discovered some modern day miniature dumps left by weekenders. 
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April 29th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
“Before Plastic” – What an intriguing title! I would love to see a book or blog or whatever all about how we made do without plastic, before it became commonplace. There’s a page in this blog about shampoo in aluminum cans – that’s great for reducing plastic, but still so energy-intensive. What did people use before plastic? Was shampoo in liquid form at all? What about shampoo bars? Does anyone know of a place where this kind of “pre-plastic era” wisdom is being compiled?