The Industrial Revolution
The Industrial Revolution began in the late 1700s, with the invention of huge textile machines. These machines could produce large amounts of textiles cheaply and quickly. These huge machines were put into factories where thousands of people would come to work. They lived in poor conditions, with little pay and few benefits. At first the machines were water-powered, but then they became less environmental and started puffing out huge amounts of toxins into the air.
Along with this pollution of the air came the production of synthetic materials. These materials were artificial and could not be decomposed. They included plastic, paper, and eventually metal from today's technology. Many people were unaware of the dangers of these products. Whenever something better came out, the old products were simply thrown out. People had no idea that these materials could not be decomposed. They thought the trash was like an apple. The apple could be thrown out because it was biodegradable, unlike the synthetic products. They were surprised at how much disease was spread and how garbage would not go away into the earth like an apple. The amount of vermin increased because of all the garbage they could eat. These vermin carried diseases that caused more illness. Then, in the 20th century, people realized the problem was too much garbage. Not much had been done to stop this problem. Some places, like London, were overflowing with garbage and reeked of the rotten stench. They then knew something had to be done, or everybody would wallop in garbage houses with diseases being rampant. However, there is still much to do today. Garbage still piles up as people throw more and more away. If something isn't done soon, we'll all be living in a disease and garbage infested world.