ABSTRACT
When early man roamed the Earth, solid waste was probably composed of the remains from hunting, gathering, and food preparation. Human fecal matter comprised the other category of the prehistoric waste stream. When wastes accumulated, nomadic people would simply move to another location. Natural processes of scavenging and microbial decomposition easily absorbed and incorporated such wastes. As a result, and also due to the very low human populations extant at the time, the characteristic problems associated with wastes such as disease, air pollution, and groundwater contamination were probably insignificant.
