In 1962 US Biologist Rachel Carson published her groundbreaking book “Silent Spring” which initiated an awakening about the impact of human activities as never really considered before. [28] Prior to this revolutionary thinking the widespread understanding and practice had been that the earth and its systems are so vast that human activity could have no lasting impact on them. As such waste was dealt with by applying the “dilute and disperse” philosophy whereby waste (solid, liquid or gaseous) was released to the environment continuously, but in small unit quantities. The idea was that the environmental systems would be able to process this waste if it was sufficiently diffused.