0:00:02 > 0:00:05MUSIC: "Telephone & Rubber Band" by Penguin Cafe Orchestra
0:00:06 > 0:00:10These programmes reveal how the history of household rubbish
0:00:10 > 0:00:13has influenced the world we live in today.
0:00:15 > 0:00:16Take a look at this.
0:00:21 > 0:00:24The refuse of a couple of days from one home.
0:00:26 > 0:00:28In the second half of the 20th century,
0:00:28 > 0:00:32the amount Britons threw away grew remorselessly,
0:00:32 > 0:00:37sometimes increasing at 7% per year.
0:00:37 > 0:00:38We actually walked in amongst that.
0:00:38 > 0:00:41And I've had it up to my shoulders,
0:00:41 > 0:00:42pulling the rubbish towards me.
0:00:45 > 0:00:48MUSIC: "Sexy Boy" by Air
0:00:48 > 0:00:50This film is about the 1970s and '80s.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Two big ideas that shape how we think now
0:00:59 > 0:01:02emerged from the rubbish of these decades.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08The first was privatisation of public services.
0:01:08 > 0:01:10This began with refuse collection.
0:01:12 > 0:01:14We worked right until the Sunday night,
0:01:14 > 0:01:17midnight, for the council,
0:01:17 > 0:01:19and then started the company at six o'clock,
0:01:19 > 0:01:21officially, the next morning.
0:01:23 > 0:01:24Was that scary?
0:01:24 > 0:01:25Yeah, it was a bit scary, yes.
0:01:27 > 0:01:31The other big idea from these years was environmental awareness.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37This was inspired by a growing fear of our wastefulness.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43There is, in fact, a general forecast of the breakdown of world society
0:01:43 > 0:01:45in the first decades of the next century.
0:01:47 > 0:01:51Making profits and being green aren't necessarily opposites.
0:01:53 > 0:01:55But in the '70s and '80s,
0:01:55 > 0:01:59they seemed like two sides of a conflict about fundamental values.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05How to deal with our rubbish became a critical issue
0:02:05 > 0:02:07that would decide the future of Britain.
0:02:19 > 0:02:23I've always been interested in being a dustman from a very early age.
0:02:24 > 0:02:28Before I even went to school, I was always out watching
0:02:28 > 0:02:31the dustmen through the windows, got to know the guys.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35And here I am with my granddad with my nan's pedal bin bucket
0:02:35 > 0:02:39on my shoulder, and I hadn't even got to school age then.
0:02:41 > 0:02:44Steve Jones' living room is like a scrap-book
0:02:44 > 0:02:47of post-war waste management.
0:02:47 > 0:02:51My nan got a brand new dustbin and I had my photograph taken with it.
0:02:52 > 0:02:55When Steve was a child, Britain was still recovering
0:02:55 > 0:02:58from the struggles of the Second World War.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03By today's standards, people were poor.
0:03:03 > 0:03:06Having little, they threw little away.
0:03:07 > 0:03:11It's remembered as the era of "make do and mend"...
0:03:12 > 0:03:14..when much of what was in the bin
0:03:14 > 0:03:16was coal ash from the household fire.
0:03:16 > 0:03:20That's why the men who took it away were called dustmen.
0:03:22 > 0:03:24I always knew when the dustmen would be about.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27And I always made a beeline for the dustcart. They all knew me,
0:03:27 > 0:03:32used to take me in the cab, take me to the tip in the holidays
0:03:32 > 0:03:35from school. They were just fantastic days, they really were.
0:03:37 > 0:03:41In his early 20s, Steve got a job on the dust.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45There's my old crew. I'm up there with the crew. There's me.
0:03:45 > 0:03:51And he loved his work so much, he just couldn't stop himself.
0:03:51 > 0:03:53I've got a lot of photographs all the way round, as you can see.
0:03:53 > 0:03:57This is when is when I was on my holidays on the Isle of Wight.
0:03:57 > 0:03:59I used to go out with the dustmen unofficially
0:03:59 > 0:04:01and give them a hand on my holidays.
0:04:02 > 0:04:05This is when I went to Cyprus.
0:04:05 > 0:04:07Friend of mine was living out there at the time,
0:04:07 > 0:04:09and they arranged for me to come out on the local dustcart
0:04:09 > 0:04:12for my birthday that fell when I was out there.
0:04:12 > 0:04:18So I went out with Theo, Achelis and Athos on their crew,
0:04:18 > 0:04:20and they took me out all day
0:04:20 > 0:04:24and I managed to get another couple of half days in before I came back.
0:04:24 > 0:04:27The old habit doesn't die. I went to the landfill with them.
0:04:29 > 0:04:32As we now know, austerity eventually gave way to plenty.
0:04:34 > 0:04:36So by the time Steve was lifting bins,
0:04:36 > 0:04:40Britain was producing over 20 million tonnes of rubbish a year.
0:04:42 > 0:04:43This is what you get
0:04:43 > 0:04:46when you throw bins on your shoulders year in, year out.
0:04:46 > 0:04:48Everyone's got a muscle there,
0:04:48 > 0:04:52but I suppose when you're lifting it just gets bigger.
0:04:52 > 0:04:57We were shifting 28, 30 tonnes a day, and that's a lot of waste.
0:04:57 > 0:04:59MUSIC: "Oh! You Pretty Things" by David Bowie
0:05:03 > 0:05:04There was a lot of waste,
0:05:04 > 0:05:08because, by the 1970s, Britain had become a consumer society.
0:05:09 > 0:05:14Shopping for new things had become a national enthusiasm.
0:05:14 > 0:05:17It gave people the sense that their lives were improving...
0:05:19 > 0:05:21..and kept the economy going.
0:05:22 > 0:05:26But as people bought more, they threw more away.
0:05:27 > 0:05:30You worked up a sweat in the summer, all the dust stuck to you.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33Kept you warm in the winter!
0:05:36 > 0:05:40The consumer society relied on efficient waste management.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43It had to be easy to throw out the old
0:05:43 > 0:05:46so people had space for the new things they were buying.
0:05:47 > 0:05:52The dustmen were the unsung heroes of the post-war economic boom.
0:06:02 > 0:06:05It's now accepted that the profligacy of the early '70s
0:06:05 > 0:06:08was the result of a wasteful mindset.
0:06:11 > 0:06:14The individuals who create the waste are living in a world
0:06:14 > 0:06:18where they're really encouraged to be oblivious to all that.
0:06:18 > 0:06:23That's really the psychological effect of having
0:06:23 > 0:06:28automated removal processes, and so on.
0:06:28 > 0:06:29You become oblivious to it,
0:06:29 > 0:06:32it's someone else's job to deal with it.
0:06:36 > 0:06:39It was in 1979 that Britons got their wake-up call.
0:06:41 > 0:06:44The nation's refuse collectors went on strike...
0:06:45 > 0:06:49..part of what came to be known as the Winter of Discontent.
0:06:52 > 0:06:55The rubbish rotting in the street had a profound impact.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01Once people come across waste
0:07:01 > 0:07:04and recognise it as something that they have produced,
0:07:04 > 0:07:08it's part of them, it doesn't go away, it can come back
0:07:08 > 0:07:12and bite them on the backside, so to speak,
0:07:12 > 0:07:14then it's something much more uncanny.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16It's being caught and spooked
0:07:16 > 0:07:19by your own shadow - it's catching up with you.
0:07:21 > 0:07:24The dustmen soon got a pay deal they were happy with.
0:07:25 > 0:07:27But 1978 proved to be a turning point
0:07:27 > 0:07:30in the history of modern Britain.
0:07:31 > 0:07:34Those mountains of rubbish came to symbolise
0:07:34 > 0:07:36a country that had gone wrong.
0:07:37 > 0:07:40How to manage the waste became a critical issue
0:07:40 > 0:07:43that would dominate political and even cultural life
0:07:43 > 0:07:45for the next decade.
0:07:52 > 0:07:55One immediate impact of the Winter of Discontent
0:07:55 > 0:07:59was that a man with a radical idea for the waste management industry
0:07:59 > 0:08:02found himself on the fringe of power.
0:08:04 > 0:08:08There was a new Conservative government led by Margaret Thatcher.
0:08:08 > 0:08:10This was great opportunity for businessman
0:08:10 > 0:08:12and Tory councillor David Evans.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22'If anyone has a reason to crack open the Krug at ten in the morning,
0:08:22 > 0:08:24'it's David Evans.
0:08:24 > 0:08:26'For the first time, shares in his company Brengreen
0:08:26 > 0:08:28'have topped one pound.'
0:08:30 > 0:08:33Brengreen was actually an office cleaning company.
0:08:33 > 0:08:36But Evans believed it could do much more.
0:08:37 > 0:08:41He set out to convince the new government that Brengreen
0:08:41 > 0:08:43could take over some of the public cleansing work,
0:08:43 > 0:08:45then being done by the state.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51David Evans, who was the chairman of Brengreen at the time,
0:08:51 > 0:08:53was a fairly political individual.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56But it was more a question "Is there a market?
0:08:56 > 0:08:58"Can we address that market,
0:08:58 > 0:09:00"and is it possible to make money out of it?"
0:09:02 > 0:09:06Richard Barlow was one of Evans' close advisors.
0:09:07 > 0:09:10The two men soon had their eyes on refuse collection.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15For over a century,
0:09:15 > 0:09:18domestic waste had been managed by local authorities.
0:09:20 > 0:09:23In some towns, that was why the council had come into being.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30But there was no law against out-sourcing some of this work
0:09:30 > 0:09:32to a private contractor.
0:09:45 > 0:09:47Southend Council was then having trouble
0:09:47 > 0:09:50with its refuse collection service.
0:09:56 > 0:10:00Every time a new house was built in the town, the dustmen demanded
0:10:00 > 0:10:03a bonus payment for collecting the rubbish from it.
0:10:04 > 0:10:07Some routes, with lots of new houses,
0:10:07 > 0:10:10had become extremely costly for the council.
0:10:12 > 0:10:15There was also blatant corruption.
0:10:17 > 0:10:20We used to pay management to falsify our timesheets.
0:10:20 > 0:10:21What do you mean by that?
0:10:21 > 0:10:22We could pay a tenner
0:10:22 > 0:10:27and get 30 quid's worth of overtime on our timesheets.
0:10:27 > 0:10:30Out of these local difficulties
0:10:30 > 0:10:35came the birth of the privatisation of Britain's public services.
0:10:35 > 0:10:36Because in 1981,
0:10:36 > 0:10:40Southend Council handed over its refuse collection service
0:10:40 > 0:10:42to David Evans to sort out.
0:10:44 > 0:10:49We were scared. But we just thought, "Well, we're going to do it."
0:10:52 > 0:10:57Privatisation meant the council's pay deals were scrapped overnight,
0:10:57 > 0:11:00because all the dustmen were made redundant.
0:11:02 > 0:11:06Most were re-hired, but on terms that suited the private contractor
0:11:06 > 0:11:11a Brengreen subsidiary called Exclusive Cleaning.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15Evans put Richard Barlow in charge of it.
0:11:15 > 0:11:19We turned up one morning and all the vehicle locks had been superglued.
0:11:19 > 0:11:22You have to find some solvent pretty quickly.
0:11:22 > 0:11:24I mean, I...
0:11:24 > 0:11:28we managed, but we were probably a couple of hours late
0:11:28 > 0:11:31getting on the job.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36But we worked through it and caught up later in the day.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40I went to see the men in December to talk to them,
0:11:40 > 0:11:43and two police officers and dogs
0:11:43 > 0:11:46thought they ought to accompany me to meet the men.
0:11:46 > 0:11:49I didn't get a chance to meet the men because they were shouting,
0:11:49 > 0:11:51"Unions in, Evans out." Never met them before.
0:11:51 > 0:11:56One of them spat in my face, and the policemen suggested
0:11:56 > 0:11:59that we retreated as quickly as possible
0:11:59 > 0:12:00as they feared for my safety.
0:12:00 > 0:12:04There were strikes. But they were partial strikes.
0:12:04 > 0:12:09I don't think we lost the whole workforce at all.
0:12:09 > 0:12:15Certain people were going on strike,
0:12:15 > 0:12:18and, I mean, we dismissed some of them.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22It was a lot easier in those days than it would be today.
0:12:22 > 0:12:27Cleverly, Richard Barlow bought himself goodwill.
0:12:27 > 0:12:31So much money was saved by ending the bonus schemes and corruption
0:12:31 > 0:12:35that he could raise the basic wage of those who were kept on.
0:12:35 > 0:12:38What do you do if you get an offer which is better
0:12:38 > 0:12:41than the one at present do you refuse or do you take it?
0:12:41 > 0:12:43This is the whole dilemma.
0:12:43 > 0:12:46Our wage was so low for years and years.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48Not just a few months, but for years.
0:12:48 > 0:12:51We were on a pittance of a wage with Southend Council.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53And when this company came along with a much better offer,
0:12:53 > 0:12:55we had to take it, it's as simple as that.
0:12:57 > 0:13:00It took about three months to settle down.
0:13:00 > 0:13:07After that, things became normal.
0:13:07 > 0:13:08Were you able to turn a profit?
0:13:08 > 0:13:11Yes, we were, thank goodness.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25Margaret Thatcher had come to power
0:13:25 > 0:13:28promising to clean up the mess that Britain was in.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33David Evans believed he had shown her how this could be done.
0:13:33 > 0:13:35Because, despite its profits,
0:13:35 > 0:13:39Exclusive Cleaning was charging Southend's ratepayers
0:13:39 > 0:13:41half a million pounds a year less
0:13:41 > 0:13:45than when the council had collected the rubbish.
0:13:45 > 0:13:46Everyone seems to agree
0:13:46 > 0:13:50that what happened here in Southend was a revolution.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52And, right now, it seems to be one that's spreading.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Up and down the country,
0:13:54 > 0:13:58there are no fewer than 117 other local authorities
0:13:58 > 0:14:00who have paid £100 each
0:14:00 > 0:14:04for copies of Southend's privatisation blueprint.
0:14:05 > 0:14:07Privatisation had begun.
0:14:12 > 0:14:16But there was a rival reaction to the Winter of Discontent.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21It was also a watershed in the environmental movement.
0:14:23 > 0:14:26In the '70s, some in Britain came to believe
0:14:26 > 0:14:28that the consumer society
0:14:28 > 0:14:30was creating an environmental catastrophe.
0:14:31 > 0:14:36They now hoped that the streets filled with rotting rubbish
0:14:36 > 0:14:40would make more people aware of society's wastefulness.
0:14:40 > 0:14:42We were dealing with a culture
0:14:42 > 0:14:46that had been a throwaway culture for many years
0:14:46 > 0:14:51and changing attitudes to that is, in fact, probably the hardest job.
0:14:52 > 0:14:54John Barton is a scientist.
0:14:56 > 0:14:57In the '70s and early '80s,
0:14:57 > 0:15:01he was based in the national laboratories at Warren Spring.
0:15:02 > 0:15:05He was working on a government research programme
0:15:05 > 0:15:07called the War on Waste.
0:15:10 > 0:15:13Its policy document declared that,
0:15:13 > 0:15:17"We all instinctively feel there is something wrong in a society
0:15:17 > 0:15:22"which wastes and discards resources on such a scale as we do today."
0:15:28 > 0:15:32Warren Spring started looking at the refuse
0:15:32 > 0:15:37mainly as a source of raw materials and that was about in '72, '73.
0:15:37 > 0:15:39When you say "refuse", you mean the household bin?
0:15:39 > 0:15:41The household rubbish, yeah.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45So you'd be sat in front of a pile of rubbish,
0:15:45 > 0:15:47you might size it
0:15:47 > 0:15:49into different size fractions,
0:15:49 > 0:15:53but, essentially, you'd just pick out everything that was in there
0:15:53 > 0:15:54and put them into different piles.
0:15:54 > 0:15:59John found that valuable resources, which could have been recycled
0:15:59 > 0:16:04back into the productive economy, were just being thrown away.
0:16:15 > 0:16:19If you go to countries like India - areas of the world
0:16:19 > 0:16:23that are resource-poor and labour-rich -
0:16:23 > 0:16:25they have always recycled.
0:16:25 > 0:16:30We were resource-rich and labour-poor in the '70s
0:16:30 > 0:16:34and so labour costs were high, resources were cheap,
0:16:34 > 0:16:38so it was quite a task to get people motivated to say, "Hang on a sec,
0:16:38 > 0:16:40"we shouldn't just be throwing this stuff away."
0:16:48 > 0:16:53The critical need for a War on Waste had been proved by science.
0:16:56 > 0:17:00In 1972, in an experiment called The Limits To Growth,
0:17:00 > 0:17:03an international panel of statisticians
0:17:03 > 0:17:05looked into the future of the planet.
0:17:07 > 0:17:11Instead of a crystal ball, they used a computer.
0:17:11 > 0:17:14They programmed in predictions of population expansion
0:17:14 > 0:17:16and economic activity.
0:17:18 > 0:17:20The results were shocking.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28From a very large number of computer runs,
0:17:28 > 0:17:34making various assumptions, adopting various maxima and minima,
0:17:34 > 0:17:39there is, in fact, a general forecast of a breakdown
0:17:39 > 0:17:42of world society in the first decades of the next century.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46MUSIC: "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" by REM
0:17:48 > 0:17:51The Limits To Growth suggested the world faced a stark choice...
0:17:53 > 0:17:56..cut down waste or face imminent global collapse.
0:18:02 > 0:18:07Margaret Thatcher prided herself on her ability to make tough choices.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17And in 1983, following victory in the Falklands War,
0:18:17 > 0:18:18she had just been re-elected
0:18:18 > 0:18:21with the largest majority for a generation.
0:18:24 > 0:18:27Thatcher now had the power to give Britain any medicine
0:18:27 > 0:18:29she thought it needed.
0:18:41 > 0:18:45Kevin Taggart collected her rubbish at the private residence
0:18:45 > 0:18:49she had owned since before becoming Prime Minister.
0:18:49 > 0:18:52Yeah, Flood Street. I've done it on one of the gangs.
0:18:52 > 0:18:56Yeah. Her and Denis used to live there, and, yeah...
0:18:56 > 0:18:59Flood Street is in Kensington and Chelsea.
0:18:59 > 0:19:01Though one of the wealthiest parts of Britain,
0:19:01 > 0:19:05it's a tough place for a dustman.
0:19:05 > 0:19:07On mornings, it is hard pulling all them rubbish up.
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I think this is still probably one of the only areas you pull it up
0:19:11 > 0:19:15from the basement still. A lot of it is downstairs.
0:19:17 > 0:19:19And that is hard, I think.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23Kensington and Chelsea was one of the first local authorities
0:19:23 > 0:19:27to copy Southend and privatise refuse collection.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29I finished on a Friday with Kensington and Chelsea,
0:19:29 > 0:19:33I was in on overtime on the Saturday morning,
0:19:33 > 0:19:37and then Monday morning, just a whole new workforce, virtually.
0:19:37 > 0:19:43And started at half six, seven in the morning,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47I finished at eight at night. I was doing 13 hours.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50That's until they learnt to get the hang of it.
0:19:50 > 0:19:54They had to go round all these roads, cos it was all virtually new men,
0:19:54 > 0:20:00never done dusting in their life, and it is quite hard at first.
0:20:00 > 0:20:05Margaret Thatcher was about to get a householder's view of privatisation.
0:20:05 > 0:20:09Nobody said to us, "Look, if you don't make it work in Flood Street,
0:20:09 > 0:20:10"this is the end of it."
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Kevin's new boss was a businessman called Roger Hewitt.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21Like David Evans, Roger was a true believer in privatisation.
0:20:21 > 0:20:26Both I and my colleagues realised that we had to make it work.
0:20:26 > 0:20:29If it didn't work, then it was going to go backwards -
0:20:29 > 0:20:35you wouldn't see that philosophy, that strategy, expanded.
0:20:35 > 0:20:36Therefore it had to work.
0:20:38 > 0:20:39Then, on the first morning
0:20:39 > 0:20:42that Flood Street was scheduled to have its bins cleared,
0:20:42 > 0:20:47the refuse collector's worst enemy appeared in force heavy snow.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52But, clearly, if we managed not to turn up
0:20:52 > 0:20:55because there was a few inches of snow,
0:20:55 > 0:20:58I think the Prime Minister would have been right in saying,
0:20:58 > 0:21:01"Look, this strategy has to work
0:21:01 > 0:21:04"within the weather patterns this country has,
0:21:04 > 0:21:05"and it does snow here."
0:21:07 > 0:21:08Despite the weather,
0:21:08 > 0:21:11the rubbish was collected from Flood Street on schedule.
0:21:17 > 0:21:20Yeah, you must have a lot of pride.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22I've been doing it 30 years now, near enough,
0:21:22 > 0:21:27so...a bit of pride.
0:21:31 > 0:21:34I did meet the Prime Minister subsequently.
0:21:34 > 0:21:36It came up in the conversation
0:21:36 > 0:21:42and her comment was that she was pleased, no more than that.
0:21:46 > 0:21:50In fact, when Roger Hewitt's company began collecting Thatcher's bins,
0:21:50 > 0:21:54the progress of privatisation was already unstoppable.
0:22:03 > 0:22:06In the '80s, Thatcher was fighting a running battle
0:22:06 > 0:22:08with Britain's local authorities.
0:22:11 > 0:22:13She accused them of being bloated spendthrifts.
0:22:22 > 0:22:25And in 1988, a new Local Government Act was passed.
0:22:27 > 0:22:30It enforced what was called "competitive tendering"
0:22:30 > 0:22:33for various local authority activities -
0:22:33 > 0:22:35including refuse collection.
0:22:35 > 0:22:38From now on, household bins would be emptied
0:22:38 > 0:22:40by whoever gave the best value for money.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Widespread privatisation followed immediately.
0:22:50 > 0:22:52Bob Seear and Ian Ross
0:22:52 > 0:22:55had their lives turned upside down in the '80s.
0:22:58 > 0:22:59It's engaged!
0:23:01 > 0:23:05In 1986, they appeared in a television programme about how
0:23:05 > 0:23:08Westminster Council cleaned up the mess of a Royal wedding.
0:23:11 > 0:23:13It's packed outside the Abbey.
0:23:13 > 0:23:15And there's quite a lot of stuff building up already.
0:23:15 > 0:23:17Any more rubbish, please?
0:23:17 > 0:23:19Have you got any more rubbish for me? Thank you.
0:23:19 > 0:23:23- Put it forward and we'll get rid of it for you.- I'm ever so sorry!
0:23:23 > 0:23:25'I started as a dustman in 1969
0:23:25 > 0:23:28'and worked my way through to become assistant director,'
0:23:28 > 0:23:31working my way up the hard way, really.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34I'd been there since '73.
0:23:34 > 0:23:36Like Ian, I ended up as assistant director in charge
0:23:36 > 0:23:38of the street cleansing operation.
0:23:38 > 0:23:40Captain Bob has come to the rescue
0:23:40 > 0:23:42with his little fleet of mobile loos!
0:23:42 > 0:23:44I'll take you all out for a drink.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47Thank you, Ian. Look forward to that!
0:23:47 > 0:23:48Have you got any money on you?
0:23:48 > 0:23:51A year after they became TV stars,
0:23:51 > 0:23:56Bob and Ian became caught up in the progress of privatisation.
0:23:56 > 0:23:59Because when Westminster Council invited tenders
0:23:59 > 0:24:01for its refuse collection service,
0:24:01 > 0:24:03Bob and Ian took on the contract themselves.
0:24:03 > 0:24:06I think the film was a great help to us.
0:24:06 > 0:24:09It was just two years from the film to winning the contract.
0:24:09 > 0:24:13Without that film, it would have been harder for us to have won.
0:24:13 > 0:24:16We had the knowledge and everything so why shouldn't we give it a go?
0:24:16 > 0:24:19As you know, it is a very important day. I'll be with you all day long.
0:24:19 > 0:24:21'It's a bit of a shock
0:24:21 > 0:24:23'when you've worked for the council for 20 years and suddenly...'
0:24:23 > 0:24:27So you didn't have time to really think about things,
0:24:27 > 0:24:29we had to make it work.
0:24:29 > 0:24:32Because obviously we'd put our houses on the line,
0:24:32 > 0:24:35our families had backed us, so we just couldn't afford to fail.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39We worked right till the Sunday night, midnight, for the council,
0:24:39 > 0:24:42and then started the company at six o'clock,
0:24:42 > 0:24:45officially, the next morning.
0:24:45 > 0:24:46Was that scary?
0:24:46 > 0:24:48It was a bit scary, yes.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52Bob and Ian's company collected rubbish
0:24:52 > 0:24:54in Westminster for six years,
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and won about 20 other contracts across the south-east.
0:24:59 > 0:25:02It was eventually sold for millions of pounds.
0:25:05 > 0:25:07You have one chance, don't you?
0:25:07 > 0:25:09Everybody gets a little bit of luck.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13Most people don't realise it's in their hands,
0:25:13 > 0:25:15so you've got to take that opportunity.
0:25:19 > 0:25:22The privatisation of waste management
0:25:22 > 0:25:24was the beginning of a period of structural change.
0:25:24 > 0:25:27MUSIC: "Ghost Town" by The Specials
0:25:28 > 0:25:32The Thatcher government sold off £29 billion worth
0:25:32 > 0:25:36of public utilities and nationalised industries.
0:25:38 > 0:25:42This led to a new emphasis in the British public services.
0:25:45 > 0:25:48Instead of being managed by the state's bureaucrats,
0:25:48 > 0:25:52the country was now being served by its entrepreneurs.
0:25:55 > 0:26:00This was more than a new economics, it was a new culture -
0:26:00 > 0:26:02a shift away from a society
0:26:02 > 0:26:04that depended on collective responsibility
0:26:04 > 0:26:06to one built on individualism.
0:26:12 > 0:26:15Not everyone bought into the values of '80s Britain.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20The green movement was deeply suspicious of the profit motive.
0:26:22 > 0:26:25This doubt dated right back to the establishment
0:26:25 > 0:26:28of the environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth.
0:26:30 > 0:26:36In 1971, activists blocked the doorstep of Schweppes's headquarters
0:26:36 > 0:26:38with empty bottles.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41Friends of the Earth were trying to highlight
0:26:41 > 0:26:42how disposable packaging
0:26:42 > 0:26:46was a key contributor to Britain's mountain of rubbish.
0:26:46 > 0:26:49It was no joke when there was a strike in London and there were lots
0:26:49 > 0:26:53of bits and pieces lying around and rats and flies and Lord knows what.
0:26:53 > 0:26:56It's seriously irresponsible of the packaging industry
0:26:56 > 0:26:58to compound this problem when really they should be helping
0:26:58 > 0:27:00all the rest of us
0:27:00 > 0:27:02look at the refuse disposal problem and solve it.
0:27:04 > 0:27:06Schweppes didn't change its policy.
0:27:06 > 0:27:11A spokesperson for the packaging industry admitted why.
0:27:11 > 0:27:13It's more convenient for the housewife
0:27:13 > 0:27:14to have disposable packages.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18It's also more profitable for your companies, of course.
0:27:18 > 0:27:19This had not escaped me.
0:27:20 > 0:27:23Many environmentalists came to believe that private businesses
0:27:23 > 0:27:28would never reduce waste because that meant less profits.
0:27:34 > 0:27:35Nice to see you again.
0:27:36 > 0:27:41But then someone found a way to make money out of recycling.
0:27:41 > 0:27:44Even my closest friends called me a crank,
0:27:44 > 0:27:48and said that nobody would do this, but I knew they would.
0:27:51 > 0:27:54In 1977, in this car park in Barnsley,
0:27:54 > 0:27:57Ron England opened the first bottle bank.
0:27:58 > 0:28:01He was an engineer in a local glass-making company,
0:28:01 > 0:28:06and knew that the technology existed for recycling bottle glass.
0:28:08 > 0:28:12But to make this process viable, he needed a steady supply of empties.
0:28:16 > 0:28:18We came up with Bottle Bank.
0:28:18 > 0:28:22We didn't want some of the window pane glass going into the banks,
0:28:22 > 0:28:26so by saying "Bottle Bank", it shows people it's a bottle.
0:28:26 > 0:28:29The actual symbol on the first bottle banks
0:28:29 > 0:28:33was actually a bottle with two Bs around it,
0:28:33 > 0:28:38so we were trying to say to the public, "Bottles please."
0:28:40 > 0:28:44With stories about an environmental apocalypse hitting the headlines,
0:28:44 > 0:28:48a trip to the Bottle Bank made people feel good about themselves.
0:28:49 > 0:28:51Buckingham Palace got one.
0:28:53 > 0:28:56And when a Bottle Bank appeared on another national treasure,
0:28:56 > 0:28:59Ron knew he'd pulled it off.
0:28:59 > 0:29:03And if you look closely on Coronation Street on the wall
0:29:03 > 0:29:06by the doctor's surgery, there is some bottle banks there,
0:29:06 > 0:29:10so bottle banks became part of everyday life.
0:29:10 > 0:29:12MUSIC: Theme from "Coronation Street"
0:29:12 > 0:29:15Bottle banks were joined by banks for paper, aluminium,
0:29:15 > 0:29:18and old clothes.
0:29:19 > 0:29:20By the mid-'80s,
0:29:20 > 0:29:25supermarket car parks were becoming mini recycling centres.
0:29:30 > 0:29:34We started to do quite a bit of public attitude survey work
0:29:34 > 0:29:40when these recycling systems came in, and clearly everyone,
0:29:40 > 0:29:41attitude-wise,
0:29:41 > 0:29:45more or less 80-90% all think it's a good thing.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48When you actually talk about their behaviour
0:29:48 > 0:29:50"When did you last go to a bottle bank?" -
0:29:50 > 0:29:53then they are scratching their heads
0:29:53 > 0:29:56and they wouldn't be able to remember.
0:29:56 > 0:29:59So attitude great, behaviour appalling,
0:29:59 > 0:30:01and that's the bottom line.
0:30:04 > 0:30:08It turned out that only a fraction of the recyclables
0:30:08 > 0:30:12in the waste stream were getting picked up by the bring system.
0:30:17 > 0:30:21It was clear that an effective recycling system would have
0:30:21 > 0:30:24to deal with the rubbish in the household bin.
0:30:26 > 0:30:29Only a generation earlier, during the Second World War,
0:30:29 > 0:30:32the waste management industry had recovered
0:30:32 > 0:30:36millions of tons of critical resources from people's bins.
0:30:36 > 0:30:38This had been possible
0:30:38 > 0:30:42because citizens sorted their rubbish on their own doorstep.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47But those were the days of "we're all in it together".
0:30:47 > 0:30:50Britain was now in the age of the individual.
0:30:55 > 0:30:58We took a fairly pessimistic view about human nature in those days,
0:30:58 > 0:31:03and we thought that, from an attitude perspective,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05that we had to deal with the waste as we found it.
0:31:07 > 0:31:10John Barton believed technology could compensate
0:31:10 > 0:31:13for the failings of modern Britons.
0:31:13 > 0:31:15Because people wouldn't sort their rubbish,
0:31:15 > 0:31:19he set out to devise a machine that would do this for them.
0:31:23 > 0:31:28The history of waste management contains many technological fixes
0:31:28 > 0:31:30that worked but didn't last.
0:31:32 > 0:31:34In the early 20th century,
0:31:34 > 0:31:37incinerators had reduced rubbish to ash,
0:31:37 > 0:31:40using the heat this created to generate electricity.
0:31:42 > 0:31:45However, the noxious fumes this produced were expensive to clean,
0:31:45 > 0:31:49and incineration fell out of fashion.
0:31:50 > 0:31:55By the late '70s, 90% of British rubbish went to landfill.
0:31:55 > 0:31:58This led to experiments that sought to reduce
0:31:58 > 0:32:00the volume of the waste going into the ground.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05The flats on this council estate in Sheffield
0:32:05 > 0:32:08all had a powerful liquidiser below the sink.
0:32:10 > 0:32:13Even tin cans could just be flushed away.
0:32:17 > 0:32:19The system didn't catch on.
0:32:24 > 0:32:29Here in Suffolk, Mike Leeks ran another machine
0:32:29 > 0:32:33that was once considered the great hope of waste management.
0:32:33 > 0:32:36You're walking on pulverised waste here.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41There's no soil at all, no soil was put on this at all, no.
0:32:41 > 0:32:45This is straight onto pulverised refuse.
0:32:45 > 0:32:49The pulveriser turned rubbish into granulated muck.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53This encouraged it to decompose until it looked
0:32:53 > 0:32:55and behaved like soil.
0:32:58 > 0:33:02An orchard has been planted on Mike's pulverised rubbish.
0:33:19 > 0:33:23But even as it was being pioneered, this technique was becoming
0:33:23 > 0:33:26out of date. There were new plastics coming into use
0:33:26 > 0:33:28that were too tough for the pulveriser.
0:33:30 > 0:33:32Heavy plastics, hard plastics...
0:33:32 > 0:33:34would just come out as they went in, really.
0:33:34 > 0:33:36They'd just been knocked about.
0:33:37 > 0:33:40You know, you couldn't really break them up.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45During the '70s, the share of the household bin that was plastic
0:33:45 > 0:33:48rose from about 1% to close to 10%.
0:33:49 > 0:33:54There's polythene, plastic bags, Fairy liquid bottle,
0:33:54 > 0:34:00very little... It hasn't even gone in 40 years. It's still the same.
0:34:01 > 0:34:04Mike's pulveriser was scrapped.
0:34:04 > 0:34:08And this approach came to be considered another costly mistake.
0:34:14 > 0:34:18John Barton was undaunted by previous engineering failures.
0:34:20 > 0:34:23He knew the automated rubbish sorter could work,
0:34:23 > 0:34:26because he was building it out of proven technologies.
0:34:30 > 0:34:33We pinched our technologies from other sectors,
0:34:33 > 0:34:36so from the agricultural sector they had machines
0:34:36 > 0:34:39which sorted the wheat from the chaff.
0:34:39 > 0:34:41That was our basic classifier
0:34:41 > 0:34:43for taking paper out from glass bottles.
0:34:43 > 0:34:47They had stoners to take stones out of potatoes.
0:34:47 > 0:34:50We used those to separate things out.
0:34:50 > 0:34:55Anything that had been used in the coal industry, we used that.
0:34:55 > 0:34:57Glass sorting into different colours -
0:34:57 > 0:35:00there were optical sorting machines that were used
0:35:00 > 0:35:02in the diamond mines in South Africa.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06They could tell if something was transparent or opaque.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08We used those.
0:35:09 > 0:35:11It was somewhat Heath Robinson.
0:35:11 > 0:35:14But John Barton had got the first scent of victory
0:35:14 > 0:35:16in the war on waste.
0:35:17 > 0:35:21That's what we did, we created these sorting technologies
0:35:21 > 0:35:25that took the raw dirty waste and sorted out the different materials -
0:35:25 > 0:35:29glass, metals, paper, plastic.
0:35:38 > 0:35:42But outside the walls of John Barton's government laboratory,
0:35:42 > 0:35:44environmentalism was changing.
0:35:47 > 0:35:50The remote prospect of global collapse
0:35:50 > 0:35:53had always been hard to grasp and easy to forget about.
0:35:56 > 0:35:59The growing volume of waste only got into the headlines
0:35:59 > 0:36:01when it was badly managed.
0:36:01 > 0:36:04So, for many, environmental awareness
0:36:04 > 0:36:07came to mean immediate safety from pollution.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14One scandal of industrial waste exemplified this attitude.
0:36:15 > 0:36:20It was quite an amazing story that happened in February 1972
0:36:20 > 0:36:24in Bermuda Village, which was then a sleepy mining village
0:36:24 > 0:36:26on the outskirts of Nuneaton.
0:36:26 > 0:36:30And it was a story that ended up making national headlines,
0:36:30 > 0:36:32and even international headlines.
0:36:34 > 0:36:39In 1972, Mike Malyon was a reporter on his local paper,
0:36:39 > 0:36:42Coventry's Evening Tribune.
0:36:43 > 0:36:49In those days this was an old lane - not even as well built as this -
0:36:49 > 0:36:53a lane coming down to what used to be a mining village,
0:36:53 > 0:36:55and there were just fields all the way around.
0:36:55 > 0:36:59But this was the site, there was no fence up around it,
0:36:59 > 0:37:01it was all just open ground.
0:37:01 > 0:37:05And it was like a derelict site. The kids just used to play around on it.
0:37:05 > 0:37:08And on this spot there was one policeman
0:37:08 > 0:37:11standing with his arms folded - uniformed policeman -
0:37:11 > 0:37:13and a pile of oil drums behind him.
0:37:15 > 0:37:19And we walked over and said, "What's going on, mate?"
0:37:19 > 0:37:23And he said, "Someone's dumped a load of cyanide here."
0:37:23 > 0:37:25And we didn't realise the significance of it, and said,
0:37:25 > 0:37:28"What's the problem?" And he said, "Well, let me put it this way.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32"There's enough cyanide here to wipe out the whole of Nuneaton."
0:37:33 > 0:37:36The drums of poison weren't contraband.
0:37:37 > 0:37:41Cyanide was a completely legal waste.
0:37:41 > 0:37:46One source of it was a big local employer - the car industry.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50Chrome was then the fashion.
0:37:50 > 0:37:54One way to get this shiny finish was in a bath of sodium cyanide,
0:37:54 > 0:37:58which then had to be disposed of.
0:37:58 > 0:38:01That's the front page
0:38:01 > 0:38:04the day after the drums were discovered on that site.
0:38:04 > 0:38:09"Poison drums start major police alert. Drums of deadly poison
0:38:09 > 0:38:11"were dumped in Bermuda Village
0:38:11 > 0:38:13"on a site used as a children's playground."
0:38:13 > 0:38:14And we told the editor,
0:38:14 > 0:38:17"What about tipping off some of... It's a national story -
0:38:17 > 0:38:19"what about tipping off some of the national newspapers?"
0:38:19 > 0:38:21And he said, "Go ahead."
0:38:21 > 0:38:23And it was headlines in the national news,
0:38:23 > 0:38:25headlines in the papers the next day.
0:38:25 > 0:38:29Daily Mirror had a big splash headline across their paper
0:38:29 > 0:38:32and they actually made it into a campaign.
0:38:32 > 0:38:34With five million readers,
0:38:34 > 0:38:37the Mirror was then the biggest-selling paper in Britain.
0:38:37 > 0:38:42Their Doomwatch campaign led to copycat scandals and a media storm.
0:38:43 > 0:38:46Mike Malyon had struck a nerve.
0:38:46 > 0:38:52I was 22 at the time, so I was quite a young reporter, really.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55It was probably the biggest story I'd dealt with up to that time.
0:38:55 > 0:38:59It really did have repercussions, major repercussions,
0:38:59 > 0:39:01nationally as well as locally.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09The cyanide scandal was a critical event in waste management.
0:39:11 > 0:39:15The press exposed the fact that there weren't adequate laws
0:39:15 > 0:39:19to prevent poisons being disposed of in a way that endangered lives.
0:39:19 > 0:39:22The Environment Secretary, Peter Walker,
0:39:22 > 0:39:26went on TV to promise this would change.
0:39:26 > 0:39:29One can't have a continuing situation where people can dump
0:39:29 > 0:39:32dangerous solids and liquids which could possibly endanger
0:39:32 > 0:39:36the very life of children and animals and water supplies
0:39:36 > 0:39:40without seeing very tough measures introduced to stop them.
0:39:43 > 0:39:47But the Government held back from banning the use of cyanide
0:39:47 > 0:39:50or other toxic chemicals which would have been restricting
0:39:50 > 0:39:55the practices of industry and stifling economic activity.
0:39:57 > 0:40:01Instead, about a month after the cyanide story broke,
0:40:01 > 0:40:04Parliament passed a new waste management law -
0:40:04 > 0:40:07the Deposit Of Dangerous Wastes Act.
0:40:07 > 0:40:12More waste laws followed. All were aimed at pollution prevention.
0:40:15 > 0:40:19Britons weren't changing their wasteful behaviour,
0:40:19 > 0:40:22but they were assured the environment was safe,
0:40:22 > 0:40:25because the waste management industry was now obliged
0:40:25 > 0:40:27to clean up the mess.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Nobody did this better than a landfill operation
0:40:40 > 0:40:45in the most unlikely of places - Packington Hall,
0:40:45 > 0:40:47seat of the Earls of Aylesford.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53It started, I guess, when my grandfather died in 1958.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56We had, inevitably, a death duty bill to face,
0:40:56 > 0:40:57and, as luck would have it,
0:40:57 > 0:41:01there's a fair amount of sand and gravel around on the estate,
0:41:01 > 0:41:06so that was the first port of call to meet the bill.
0:41:06 > 0:41:09So having extracted the gravel
0:41:09 > 0:41:12and paid the death duties, we were left with a hole.
0:41:14 > 0:41:18It was a deep hole, over 300 acres in area -
0:41:18 > 0:41:20the size of a small town.
0:41:23 > 0:41:26The Aylesfords realised they could make even more money
0:41:26 > 0:41:29by charging local authorities to tip rubbish in it.
0:41:33 > 0:41:35But landfill had a reputation
0:41:35 > 0:41:38as the cheap and nasty approach to waste disposal.
0:41:41 > 0:41:44Historically, people had taken...
0:41:44 > 0:41:47had a hole in the ground, tipped and ran.
0:41:47 > 0:41:51We had to take a slightly different approach because
0:41:51 > 0:41:55we'd been here 300 years and we hoped to be here another 300,
0:41:55 > 0:41:58so we were very conscious from the word go that whatever
0:41:58 > 0:42:03we did in that site was going to haunt us for years to come.
0:42:06 > 0:42:11In 1986, in Loscoe in Derbyshire, two homes were destroyed
0:42:11 > 0:42:14when gas seeping out of an old landfill exploded.
0:42:17 > 0:42:23I was fast asleep and then it was all the noise that woke me up.
0:42:23 > 0:42:27I heard a terrific crack and then all the rumbling noise.
0:42:27 > 0:42:33When I opened my eyes, there was a giant flame just above my face,
0:42:33 > 0:42:39and that disappeared and I could see the roof timbers and the sky.
0:42:41 > 0:42:45What happened at Loscoe could happen at any landfill.
0:42:47 > 0:42:51The problem was that Britons were throwing out too much food.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55Almost 30% of late 20th-century rubbish
0:42:55 > 0:42:57was organic matter.
0:42:58 > 0:43:02As it rotted away underground, it produced methane,
0:43:02 > 0:43:04which is highly flammable.
0:43:04 > 0:43:08Methane can continue to be produced for 20 years
0:43:08 > 0:43:10after the last load of rubbish is buried.
0:43:14 > 0:43:17A landfill could become a huge ticking bomb.
0:43:25 > 0:43:31But Packington turned this explosive liability into an asset.
0:43:33 > 0:43:37This is an electricity generator, which runs off methane gas
0:43:37 > 0:43:40that has been piped out of Packington landfill.
0:43:42 > 0:43:47Rotting rubbish buried here decades ago is still producing enough power
0:43:47 > 0:43:50to light up 10,000 homes.
0:43:50 > 0:43:54This harnessing of the energy from waste made even burying it
0:43:54 > 0:43:56seem environmentally-friendly.
0:44:06 > 0:44:08But some still claimed landfill
0:44:08 > 0:44:10was just sweeping the problem under the carpet.
0:44:17 > 0:44:21The War On Waste declared the only long-term solution
0:44:21 > 0:44:26was to reduce the amount of rubbish that Britain threw away.
0:44:26 > 0:44:31This was the purpose of John Barton's pioneering recycling plant,
0:44:31 > 0:44:34which opened in Doncaster in 1979.
0:44:39 > 0:44:44We built what today we'd call a materials recycling facility.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49Exactly the same sort of equipment - rotary screens, magnets,
0:44:49 > 0:44:52air classifiers, optical sorters,
0:44:52 > 0:44:55conveyers all over the place,
0:44:55 > 0:44:56hand-picking belts.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59You wouldn't know if you walked into the Doncaster plant now
0:44:59 > 0:45:02that it wasn't just a modern materials recycling facility.
0:45:02 > 0:45:04What you're saying is
0:45:04 > 0:45:07you scrapped the technological problems of recycling?
0:45:07 > 0:45:10Yes, we basically cracked that, but we didn't crack the markets,
0:45:10 > 0:45:13we didn't crack public perception
0:45:13 > 0:45:15and we certainly didn't crack the economics.
0:45:17 > 0:45:21John had hoped that local authorities would be able to afford
0:45:21 > 0:45:25the cost of processing household waste in a recycling plant,
0:45:25 > 0:45:29because the resources it extracted from the rubbish would be sold back
0:45:29 > 0:45:30into the productive economy.
0:45:34 > 0:45:38But soon after it started up, Doncaster was only getting
0:45:38 > 0:45:42about 10p worth of recyclables out of the typical household bin.
0:45:45 > 0:45:49For example, the steel - well, that industrial sector was wiped out
0:45:49 > 0:45:53in the early '80s and we had thousands of tonnes of bales of steel
0:45:53 > 0:45:56sticking in the corner of the plant at Doncaster
0:45:56 > 0:45:59and in the end we had to pay someone to take them away.
0:46:02 > 0:46:05The recycling plant failed the critical test
0:46:05 > 0:46:07of '80s waste management.
0:46:07 > 0:46:09This was hugely more expensive
0:46:09 > 0:46:12than disposing of rubbish in landfill,
0:46:12 > 0:46:17which, thanks to Packington, now even seemed environmentally sound.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23So, after just a few years of operation,
0:46:23 > 0:46:26John's brainchild was scrapped.
0:46:28 > 0:46:33Essentially, we were dealing with an economic circumstance
0:46:33 > 0:46:35in which landfill became king.
0:46:42 > 0:46:47I remember sitting on the floor of the Doncaster waste recycling plant
0:46:47 > 0:46:51in about 1984, 1985, with a colleague,
0:46:51 > 0:46:54and we laughed till we cried.
0:46:59 > 0:47:02The war on waste was lost.
0:47:08 > 0:47:12Throughout the '80s, the waste stream continued to expand,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14as dustmen recall to this day.
0:47:14 > 0:47:16The '80s, yeah.
0:47:16 > 0:47:20There was no limit to what people wanted to put in the bins.
0:47:20 > 0:47:23What they wanted to put in, they put in.
0:47:23 > 0:47:27Paul Couchman has been collecting bins for over 30 years.
0:47:27 > 0:47:30I enjoy the job, really enjoy the job.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32We have a laugh and joke,
0:47:32 > 0:47:35take a bit of mickey out of each other.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40But back in the '80s, being a dustman wasn't always funny.
0:47:42 > 0:47:45The nappies, they'd actually fall down your back,
0:47:45 > 0:47:47with whatever they'd got in.
0:47:48 > 0:47:52Disposable nappies had been invented a generation before,
0:47:52 > 0:47:56but only really took off in Britain during the late 20th century.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02They were just one flow within a waste flood of disposable goods.
0:48:02 > 0:48:05Pens, razors, shopping bags,
0:48:05 > 0:48:08were now being used once then thrown away.
0:48:10 > 0:48:12Despite rising concern for the environment,
0:48:12 > 0:48:15people were choosing convenience.
0:48:21 > 0:48:24The waste management industry was struggling to keep up.
0:48:25 > 0:48:28That's probably one of the old ones.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33Brian Carter came up with a simple solution to more waste -
0:48:33 > 0:48:35bigger bins.
0:48:35 > 0:48:38This is a 1983 one...
0:48:40 > 0:48:44..which we originally anticipated would last ten years
0:48:44 > 0:48:46and it's still going strong.
0:48:46 > 0:48:49Here, in Bury, Lancashire, in the housing estate
0:48:49 > 0:48:54where his family lived, Brian introduced the wheelie bin.
0:49:02 > 0:49:05Though well-established in Europe, the wheelie bin
0:49:05 > 0:49:07was completely new to Britain.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10That's a 1983 one.
0:49:11 > 0:49:13It led to an immediate doubling
0:49:13 > 0:49:16in the efficiency of the refuse collection.
0:49:16 > 0:49:19Two men were doing what previously four men did.
0:49:22 > 0:49:25HE LAUGHS
0:49:25 > 0:49:27Also, there was less spillage,
0:49:27 > 0:49:30as the new bins had heavy flip-top lids.
0:49:33 > 0:49:36It was capacity, cleanliness, one-shot job.
0:49:36 > 0:49:38It was the way of doing it.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41It was so successful after the first 12 months
0:49:41 > 0:49:42that the authority decided
0:49:42 > 0:49:46they would then go through the whole borough with it.
0:49:46 > 0:49:49Bury was followed by other local authorities.
0:49:49 > 0:49:52In the '80s, the wheelie bin
0:49:52 > 0:49:55spread across Britain like the latest craze.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01They used to call me, in the first few years,
0:50:01 > 0:50:03the king of the wheelie bins!
0:50:08 > 0:50:12But many local authorities reported that the wheelie bin
0:50:12 > 0:50:15led to an immediate increase in the waste stream.
0:50:16 > 0:50:19At 240 litres, the wheelie bins could handle
0:50:19 > 0:50:24three times as much rubbish as the traditional dustbins they replaced.
0:50:24 > 0:50:26And local authorities soon discovered
0:50:26 > 0:50:29that people were filling them up.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35This was because of what's known as Parkinson's Law of Rubbish -
0:50:35 > 0:50:40the more bin space households have, the more they throw away.
0:50:42 > 0:50:45It's a fundamental flaw that undermines
0:50:45 > 0:50:47improvements in waste management to this day.
0:50:59 > 0:51:04Back in the 1980s, disposal systems became more efficient than ever,
0:51:04 > 0:51:08thanks to another clever idea pioneered at Packington Hall.
0:51:10 > 0:51:14Here, a land-FILL was being turned into a land-HILL.
0:51:16 > 0:51:21Clearly, we were enjoying the income benefits of the landfill -
0:51:21 > 0:51:23it was doing wonders for the estate,
0:51:23 > 0:51:25we could actually upgrade the properties -
0:51:25 > 0:51:30and it become also clear that there was a finite life to this.
0:51:30 > 0:51:33So we actually looked around and suddenly thought,
0:51:33 > 0:51:37"Why don't we have a go at going up here?
0:51:37 > 0:51:39"Perhaps we can get away with a hill."
0:51:41 > 0:51:43The man who devised the landhill
0:51:43 > 0:51:46was one of the most influential figures in waste management.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52He was the site manager at Packington - Tony Biddle.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54Oh, he was absolutely key.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58You will hear people saying everything from eccentric, mad,
0:51:58 > 0:52:00very intelligent.
0:52:01 > 0:52:05He became totally single-minded about the site.
0:52:06 > 0:52:09Biddle was a contradictory figure.
0:52:09 > 0:52:11Despite managing a vast landfill,
0:52:11 > 0:52:15he talked like an environmental activist.
0:52:15 > 0:52:18Undoubtedly, there is room for improvement in any industry,
0:52:18 > 0:52:20let alone the waste-management industry.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24What I would like to see by way of improvement, for instance,
0:52:24 > 0:52:27I would like to see Margaret Thatcher wearing green underwear
0:52:27 > 0:52:29rather than green cosmetic.
0:52:29 > 0:52:32I would like to see Margaret Thatcher with a green heart.
0:52:32 > 0:52:34He was a bit of an eccentric.
0:52:36 > 0:52:39But he was a well-liked character.
0:52:39 > 0:52:44Kevin Lane worked alongside Biddle for 20 years.
0:52:44 > 0:52:49He used to always wear plus fours, garters and a hat.
0:52:49 > 0:52:51A very colourful character.
0:52:51 > 0:52:54And he used to have a whistle round his neck.
0:52:54 > 0:52:57And if he wanted to get anybody's attention
0:52:57 > 0:52:59you could hear him whistling and shouting,
0:52:59 > 0:53:03and that's how you knew when he was approaching anybody.
0:53:03 > 0:53:07And he used to always have an Alsatian dog with him.
0:53:07 > 0:53:11Everywhere he went, his dog was his loyal friend.
0:53:11 > 0:53:13Apart from me, that was.
0:53:14 > 0:53:18Biddle's plan for the landhill was hugely ambitious.
0:53:18 > 0:53:20It would be 55 metres high
0:53:20 > 0:53:24and would take a generation to fill with waste.
0:53:24 > 0:53:28We actually had a full-scale model made of what it would look like
0:53:28 > 0:53:31when it was finished. 55 metres above original contour
0:53:31 > 0:53:35over nearly 300 acres was a concept that might be a bit alarming,
0:53:35 > 0:53:38but by actually making a full-scale model,
0:53:38 > 0:53:42we could see ourselves that it actually fitted in reasonably well,
0:53:42 > 0:53:44it was going to be absolutely fine.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52Going up increased capacity at no extra cost.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56And Biddle pointed out that it was easier to control pollution risks
0:53:56 > 0:53:57above ground level.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03Local authorities were quick to take advantage
0:54:03 > 0:54:06of this cheap and apparently environmentally sound
0:54:06 > 0:54:08disposal system.
0:54:11 > 0:54:15We used to have them queuing half a mile down the road to get in.
0:54:15 > 0:54:20If you think, you've watched it grow from zero to what it is now...
0:54:20 > 0:54:24I mean, I've seen virtually millions of tonnes of waste
0:54:24 > 0:54:26come through the gates.
0:54:30 > 0:54:32Packington was so successful
0:54:32 > 0:54:35it became a role model in waste disposal...
0:54:36 > 0:54:40..and vast hills of rubbish remade the British landscape.
0:54:46 > 0:54:48Landhills created what seemed to be
0:54:48 > 0:54:51limitless capacity for waste disposal.
0:54:51 > 0:54:53They even seemed pollution-free.
0:54:54 > 0:54:59So people no longer had to worry about their wastefulness.
0:54:59 > 0:55:03And during the 1980s, excess became acceptable.
0:55:24 > 0:55:28The hill at Packington is nearly complete now.
0:55:28 > 0:55:32The eastern side has been grassed over, and looms over the deer park.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37Beyond it stretches a plateau, hundreds of acres across -
0:55:37 > 0:55:39all made of rubbish.
0:55:41 > 0:55:44All of this area here...
0:55:44 > 0:55:49has been... There's landfill waste underneath that, there.
0:55:51 > 0:55:55Tony Biddle died before Packington reached its full magnificence.
0:55:55 > 0:55:59But Kevin Lane still feels the gaze of his old boss
0:55:59 > 0:56:02watching over the hill he helped create.
0:56:02 > 0:56:05Just beyond the chimneys
0:56:05 > 0:56:07is where Mr Biddle lived.
0:56:07 > 0:56:10And when he passed away,
0:56:10 > 0:56:13rather than being in a cemetery or whatever,
0:56:13 > 0:56:16they laid him to rest in the bottom of the garden,
0:56:16 > 0:56:21I think it was. And rather than sort of laying him flat,
0:56:21 > 0:56:23they sort of laid him on an angle
0:56:23 > 0:56:25facing the landfill site,
0:56:25 > 0:56:28so we all look now and we know he's looking at us.
0:56:28 > 0:56:33So, yeah, over there, he's looking at us now.
0:56:39 > 0:56:42It's not just Packington that's being grassed over.
0:56:42 > 0:56:44All over Britain,
0:56:44 > 0:56:46landfills are closing -
0:56:46 > 0:56:48sometimes before they're full.
0:56:51 > 0:56:55This is because evidence of man-made climate change
0:56:55 > 0:56:58has made resources precious again.
0:56:59 > 0:57:04So the waste-management industry is finding ways to preserve them,
0:57:04 > 0:57:08often returning to techniques lost since the mid-20th century.
0:57:25 > 0:57:29Separating our rubbish into different bins makes us feel better.
0:57:30 > 0:57:33But improving waste management isn't enough.
0:57:33 > 0:57:38Recycling systems can use as much energy as they save,
0:57:38 > 0:57:42and some 70% of household rubbish isn't recycled.
0:57:46 > 0:57:49At the heart of 1940s Britain
0:57:49 > 0:57:52was a mindset exemplified by "make do and mend" -
0:57:52 > 0:57:56people only threw away what they could no longer find a use for.
0:58:01 > 0:58:05That way of thinking is not being rediscovered.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10We still create rubbish like there's no tomorrow,
0:58:10 > 0:58:14and expect the waste management industry to clear up our mess.
0:58:17 > 0:58:20# My old man's a dustman
0:58:20 > 0:58:22# He wears a dustman's hat
0:58:22 > 0:58:24# He wears cor blimey trousers
0:58:24 > 0:58:26# And he lives in a council flat
0:58:26 > 0:58:27# He looks a proper nana
0:58:27 > 0:58:29# In his great big hobnailed boots
0:58:29 > 0:58:31# He's got such a job to pull 'em up
0:58:31 > 0:58:33# That he calls them daisy roots
0:58:33 > 0:58:35# Oh, my old man's a dustman
0:58:35 > 0:58:37# He wears a dustman's hat
0:58:37 > 0:58:39# He wears cor blimey trousers
0:58:39 > 0:58:41# And he lives in a council flat... #
0:58:42 > 0:58:45Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd