Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-06-26
THE GARBAGE PROBLEM
What the New York Commissioners Pound
Out. 4
Money Made by Garbage Companies-
Reduction vs.. Cremation-Some
Figures Given.

Boston was the first city visited, and
under the charge of Mayor Matthews the
plant at Wakefield was inspected. The
method, as also In Buffalo. st. Louis De-
ttreits Milwaukee and Cincinnati, is some
what on the plan of q reduction works.
Here On BOSTON, instead of being ere
mated the garbage is cooked in steam and
reduced to two products, 1. e., a grease
substance and q dry fertilizer. Into an
Iron digester the garbage is dumped, seal
ed up and treated to an sO-pound pressure
Of steam for six hours. Then. the stuff
having thus undergone a Transforming
process, 1t Is subjected to heavy pressure,
that the grease may be extracted. In
these details, ie steam cooking and pres
sure extraction, the Boston plan differs
from the dry roast and chemical extraction
process at st. Louis, Buffalo, Cincinnati,
Milwaukee and Detroit, but the principle
!. O., to utilize garbage by TRANSFORMED
ton Qnstead Of destroying 1t by fire or
water) Is the same in these various ire
duction" plants. 1t is necessary, in this
system. to separate non-reducible matter,
such as cans, paper, shoes, etc, ETC., from
the kitchen refuse. and this feature is
one that New York and other large cities
find 1t difficult to adapt. Then. too, the
tority Of these cities, In that It cannot
hardle dead animals or night SOIL and
thus necessitating additional garbage facil-
tiles The favorable features of this sys-
created and the market value of the re-
sulting product tends to lessen the cost
to the city. In Boston, for instance, the
company Is willing to operate the plant,
and pay for that privilege sum equal to
per cent annual interest on the cost Of
construction, II the city will build the
works. Or, the company will buhd its own
plant II the city will pay "a cents a ton for
diSnQSpd n
pany. the city to collect the garbage and
deliver 1t at the works. The products
themselves yield fair profit on the cost
of operating the plant, but not enough,
1t Is claimed, to cover also the interest on
the investment. While these figures are in
mind We wish to note that in Buffalo, NY,
where the system We described last month
IL used, and which same system is also
used in st. Louis, Detroit and Milwaukee,,
the company has five years contract
with the city to reduce all the garbage
of the city at total set price of $4,000.
This gives the company $4,000 year,
$2,750 per month The contract has been
in force since June /, 1898. and at the pres
emit time the total amount of Carbage does
not exceed 1000 tons per month. 1t will
thus be seen that Buffalo is paying at
the rate of $137 per ton, as against only
"a cents proposed by the Boston COM
pany. In this connection we also note
that a Chicago firm claims ability to dis
pose of the garbage at a cost of to
cents per ton. Should 1t be possible to
dispose OF the SUN at TINS small expense
1t becomes useless to discuss the question
of utilizing instead of destroying as the
economical advantage is too plainly in
favor of the latter.
Cremation MT Montreal.
Montreal next attracted the commits
sioners, where they arrived on October 10.
The genuine crematory or total destruc-
ton by combustion method is used, and
nothing but ashes and Stag the re-
sultant products. The products, however,
when mixed with mortar make good
cement, and hence have marketable
value. The garbage Is dumped into in
Generators through hoppers in the floor
above. An auxiliary fire keeps up COM
bustion in these incineratcrs. and Is fed
with coal. wood, etc. Necessarily this
method creates considerable vapor, which
must also be destroyed in order to avoid
that greatest of garbage works difficulties,
bad odor. A large plant is necessary, the
destruction of valuable fuel Is entailed,
and some of the good products of garbage
are lost in the process.
In Chicago the garbage Is drawn on fiat
cars that are protected by friedrich into a
veritable fiery furnace. These cars run the
gauntlet of jets of fire formed by blasts of
steam and petroleum, and as the procession
or cars makes its way slowly through the
tunnel the garbage Is supposed to be con-
sumed. In order to facilitate combustion air
is forced into the burning garbage through
hollow poker or tube. Though the system
is capable of handling immense quantities
Of garbage the test was rather unsatsfac-
tory. Dense clouds Of offensive smoke
arose, and some Of the garbage came out
In an unconsumed state. The expense OF
keeping the plant In repair may be con-
siderable, but low estimate of cost per
ton for destruction I. e., 6 to Z cents. Is in
the plans favor. Like the Montreal Gre
matory this method calls for consumption
of new fuel, and likewise destroys the gar
bage products.
Figures From St. Louis.
st. Louis next caught the distinguished
travellers, where an insps ction of It's sys-
tenn was made. 1t has been shown here
as In Boston, that there are desirable
financial possibilities in any system that
seeks to reduce to a product rather than
TO destroy the garbage. but it is claimed
that as yet a plant cannot be made self
sustaining. That the near future will
prove this claim to be a mistaken one we
firmly believe, for it is easily possible to
modernize the existing plants in a manner
that will result in facilitating, hence econ
omizing, the operations When this Is
done the market value of the resultant
product will pay the operating expenses
cash investment. The following compila-
ton shows estimated profits for one
months operation of the st. Louis plant:
Income.
Tons of garbage reduced in August 81, 09S
Received from the city about IS
cents per toni NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. $5,5SO.15
Value of resultant fertilizer at $40
per ton Figuring 20 tons for
every 100 tons garbage). ........ HOPS 90
Value Of grease product at 81 for
each ton of tankage. ............. ass 90
Total income ......................S2 SOS, 446. Is
Operating expenses.
wages :.........s................. $4,2oO
Coal ......................... 800
salaries 1,puo
Chemicals etc. ................. 1000
-14 CT5 90
BdianCe Sllp III. 10
The Atlanta System.
Atlanta, Ga, was reached on the evening
Of October %, and here was inspected the
rnnst tallred about of all the schernas In.