The times., 1901-03-24
BIG FORTUNES THROWN AWAY.
Tons of Paper. Coal, and General Re-
fuse Wasted Annually.
(From the Philadelphia Record.

Vast fortunes are thrown away annual
ly ia the waste of New York city. The
poor of Paris could be well housed, fed
and clothed with the proceeds from the
waste of that city. This statement is not
based on mere supposition, but upon
facts CLEANED from an experiment which
was tried by the city authorities last year
IN caring for certain portion OF the
city's waste.
For a period Of twelve months the re-
fuse and waste gathered from Street
Cleaning Districts Nos. L, il, and is was
delivered at a special station, where ii
was carefully separated into its consti
tuent parts and such as could be utilized
for any good purpose was sold for what
il would bring and the balance was de-
strOyed. The area covered Included
population. according to the census re
turns Of ll6525 Every class of house.
shop. store. and few factories are to be
| found within the districts. so that the
results of the years work would form
fair basis for estimating the value of the
waste Of the whole city.
During the year i, ,947 loads of separated
refuse from carts holding four cubic
yards. weighing 900 pounds per load. or,
in the aggregate 5s2G tons. were gath
| cred from this territory OF this amount
| 5S per cent to 60 per cent was burned
| as useless, and from to per cent was
| worthless, while about 81 per cent was
marketable. The matter reserved for
| sale contains 3.U5S.6l6 pounds Of paper,
/ which WAS classified as follows: Manila
/ paper, 4d 30 pounds; news 5O}.5ul; mixed.
ping G25 l36; books. 1880
| There Was total of 5IG.Sl2 pounds Of
rags, classified as follows: Wooden. 1S.-
G-; white, II .450; mixed, 1860: black
l95. .S25; ba2ging, 1906. twine, 2.C70; soft
| lack carpet, 1875: bareback carpet 70
| $40; wool carpet. 3.Sl5; linsey carpet. 7.lS0;
1 old coats, 2a94J. stockings 1880.
Among other articles there were found
| So $40 pounds of old iron; 494 pounds OF
| copper . go pounds Of zinc 1.GF pounds
| Of brass. 2n3 pounds Of lead. 8 169 pounds
| Of Old rubber. 3flGo pounds Of old shoes.
| 800 pounds Of hair cloth. TO pounds of
| curled hair 2. 100 old hats, J. loads Of tin
cans. 40 mattresses. 2.890 barrels and
\ 1926 proprietary bottles. Besides all
| this. II must be remembered there was
an immense amount of matter Of all
| classes gathered by the countless number
| Of rag aud garbage collectors who do a
| business independent Of the city depart
| meut.
| Taking these figures as a basis for es-
| timating the amount Of refuse collected
| from the boroughs Of Manhattan and
| Bronx for this year, at the same time al
/ lowing for the natural increase, il would
| amount 20 lI2,0j0 tons for twelve months.
| About q peri cent, or 35.S40 tons, repre-
sents the paper and rags.
| it is interesting 10 note that the daily
| newspapers in New York consume $50
| tons Of paper per day, of which, it is es-
( timated, one-half remains in the city and
I is not sent into circulation through the
| mails This oue-half will a..1unt Ia "a =
| SO tons during the year. To this vast
! paper heap must be added the immense
1 stack OF printed matter. Sucn as EiTcu-
| lars posters. advertising letters. etc, and
| the refuse from the weekly and monthly
publications.
| About one-half OF this vast total of
| waste paper finds its way back TO the
| manufacturer through private channels
| while much Of il Is consumed in the fur
| naces Of office buildings, institutions and
| the ike. with most unsatisfactory results
| For example, the Federal authorities in
| their building downtown undertake to
| destroy large quantities Of paper and Ow-
| ing TO the fierce draft due to the tall
| cbimncys and the poor combustion, half
| burnt paper is distributed impartially
/ over the Ucighborhood
For weeks together last summer the at
| mospheTc OF a section, including parts of
| Broad. wall. and Exchange Streets, was,
at certain hours, loaded with floating
| ashes and half-burned scraps of paper
| and on several days in particular the
1 walks and pavements in the vicinity of
4 the Custom House were literally carpeted
/ with charTed fragments Of burned Gov
| ernment records.
| These crude methods of disposing Of
| this particular kind of waste are bound
/ 10 become thing of the past very soon,
for steps are now under way whereby a
| uodcrnized destructor. one which is pat
| termed after I'--"sh destructor will