Ideas, Municipal Sanitation, and the Transformation of Public Health

The transition from private, individual garbage disposal practices to public responsibility for sanitation marked a durable shift in governing authority, which advanced local governments’ control over public health at the same time it transformed public health outcomes in American cities. How did political actors at the time advocate for, win, and maintain cities’ public health authority and capacity? We show the development of municipal garbage programs was predicated on the bedrock of ideas about garbage as a sanitary issue. Further, we illustrate how power was exercised through the idea of sanitation, whether in casting filth as a threat to public health, persuading politicians to adopt sanitary measures, or in inducing residents to comply with new practices. The ideas sanitary experts promoted, the policies they advocated for, and the waste management infrastructure they helped to develop remain evident in the acceptance, location, and methods of garbage collection and disposal today.