Page 14 - Pharmacy History 03 Sept 1997

Collectables
By Geoff Miller
In the past we have talked about the wonderful variety of artefacts associated with pharmacy that are novel, artistic and functional, as well as being very beautiful, and therefore desirable, to collectors the world over.
In this article we are going to talk about another sort of collectable, which is really just a load of rubbish!
Before the ‘throw away society’, now in retreat with ecology and green issues taking centre stage, everything had a value and very little was discarded. When even brick dust was sold on as a scouring agent and bones boiled to make glue in the 18th and 19th centuries, it is small wonder that bottles and pots were quite high in the treasure to be put back to use.
A chain of reclamation meant that everything was sifted. In the 1700s there might be an appointed town scavenger but at the expense of subscribers. Twice a week he collected rubbish that had been heaped in the middle of the street by customers.
Here we now are in the 21st century and what do we find? Municipal councils collecting green waste,
hard waste and recyclable materials from street verges.
During the 18th century and most
of the 1800s glass bottles were by no means cheap and it is unlikely that many would have been discarded. In the 19th century town, making money from rubbish was an industry. An idea of how thorough was the constant sifting of waste can be seen from the following list of trades, some of which were illustrated in the BBC television series The World’s Worst Jobs:
Street buyers of rags , broken metal, bottles, glass and bones; buyers of kitchen stuff, grease and dripping;
14 Pharmacy History Australia volume 5 no 36 FEBRUARY 2009