Formed in 1982, after inspiration from the Crass gig at the A Centre in Long Lane Belfast the same year. The initial line up of the band was Phil Coffey (bass), Patsy Preston (vocals), Glen Thompson aka Grub (drums) and Marty Martin (guitar). Toxic Waste wanted to take the DIY and anti establishment ethos of punk one stage further. Originally from the Ards area, they played their first gig at the West Winds Roadhouse in Newtownards in the same year, and played regularly in Ards and Bangor for the next two years. Marty recalls the band’s early formation and their debut gig “Phil and I had been writing songs together since 1980 but it wasn’t until 1982 when we met Patsy after the Crass and Dirt gig in Belfast that we came up with the idea of forming Toxic Waste. Grub (who also lived in Newtownards) heard that we had started a band and announced he was drumming for us. Having no other volunteers at the time, we agreed. Our first gig was shambolic at best. One of the few punks that happened to be there that night was Chuck who later ended up drumming with Pink Turds in Space. He was drumming for a band called Scum at that time and was very encouraging towards us. We organized a couple of gigs (one in the Ards Arena, and one in the Project Bangor) where we invited Scum along to play and they in turn organized a few gigs for us in Belfast at the Manhatten Club. This started a fairly regular slot for us and we became good friends with Stalag 17 and Asylum who also regularly played there.”

In 1983 Toxic Waste went into a four track recording studio in Bangor and recorded tracks which would be released on cassette as “Unite to Resist”. Marty again “It has to be one of the worst sounding demos in the history of recorded music! It did however manage to secure us some much need exposure at the time”.By 1984 Toxic Waste decided to move base to Belfast were they were joined by second vocalist Roy Wallace, who had been singing with punk band Wardance who had just recently disbanded. During this time the band members would regularly hang out at Just Books, an alternative/anarchist bookshop in Belfast. Marty takes up the story “Just Books was also where we met all the others involved in setting up the Warzone Collective and we eventually took over the running of the café there. It was the café where we started meeting up with and organizing events with the Rathcoole Self Help Group. Together we organized a small tour of the North of Ireland for the English Anarcho punk band Conflict. They in turn offered us and Stalag 17 a track on a compilation album “We Don’t Want Your Fucking War” released on their Mortarhate label”. It was also via Just Books that Toxic Waste would meet Mark Alexander Les Ostrich who wrote Traditionally Yours and Dear Little Dinosaur. Mark was to join the band briefly on vocals.

After Mark left Toxic Waste recruited Dane (who wrote the song Burn Your Flags) on vocals.  Also in 1984 Toxic Waste played with English Anarcho band Conflict at the Manhattan Club, and later in London, which resulted in them doing a number of recordings for Conflict’s label Mortarhate. They also toured England and Scotland in 1984 and Europe twice in the following two years. The writing was on the wall for the band though as Grub split the band on the eve of their final tour which resulted in Roy having to drum and sing on that tour. The tour was still well received but the band finally dissolved in 1986 after a gig in Norwich with Antisect.

After the band split Roy moved to London where in 1987 he released ‘Belfast’, a compilation of previously recorded Toxic Waste tracks and newly recorded versions of old Toxic Waste tracks, with Dino from DIRT doing the female vocal parts and Gary from Dirt the guitars.

Marty and Roy would later work together again to form the notorious Bleeding Rectum, who had a brief run of success before splitting after a joke ‘death threat’ to Daniel O’Donnell got out of hand on the ‘Daniel O’Donnell Must Die’ tour. Toxic Waste briefly reformed in 1991 to do a benefit tour in Europe, with Dino again doing the female vocal role, and a ‘greatest hits’ compilation CD was released in 1998 on Rejected Records. The lyrics and ideas were always much more important to the band than the music, and most of the members of the band were involved with setting up the Warzone Collective, Giros, the Belfast Musicians Collective, and the Newtownabbey Musicians’ Workshop, most of which are still active today.