This is backstory. I'm Peter O'Neill.

The United States produces more trash than any country in the entire world.

We figured there were some good stories buried in all that garbage.

Like the one about early New Yorkers outsourcing trash collection to an army of pigs.

But no one I think really understood how significant that was.

And then all of a sudden when the pigs are gone, there's like,

oh crap, pardon the language.

But you've got to figure out what to do with all of this stuff left in the streets

that you used to have animals taking care of.

We'll also hear about the army of scrap metal traders in the late 19th and early 20th century.

They may be knocking on doors and saying, pardon me,

do you have any old pots and pans I'd be willing to buy them for a nickel?

Taking out the trash throughout American history.

Today on Backstory.

Major funding for Backstory is provided by the ShiaCon Foundation,

the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation,

and the Arthur Vining Davis Foundations.

From the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

This is Backstory with the American History Guys.

Welcome to the show. I'm Peter O'Neill.

And I'm Brian Bellow. It airs this way this week.

Think back to the last time you bought something you didn't really need.

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