Waterbury Democrat., 1902-10-06
SORTING RAGS VALUE UNDER THE oLDs SYSTEM

ashes and cinders. In any well regu- lated system of collection the house. holder should be required to keep these separate from garbage and from all other forms of rubbish. In any large city vast quantities of this mate rial are produced daily; especially IS this true during the winter season, when each family is contributing to the general supply. During the sum mer months the production is confined mainly to the manufacturing districts and to the business portions where steam plants are in constant opera tion.
 It would seem then to be more eco nomical to utilize the ashes for filling purposes in the first place than to pay 40 to 80 cents per ton for burning when only about one-half of the material can be destroyed. In taking this position I am not overlooking the claim which is made that the heat units contained in the percentage of unconsumed coal found in ashes, are an aid in burning the mass of wet and almost incombus- tible matter which is brought to a crematory where all kinds of city wastes, including garbage, are treated. So, too, the claim is made, and strange ly enough by those who claim to favor the utilization theory, that house gar bage is rich in heat units and may be successfully used as a fuel for pro- ducing municipal light and power. The only drawback to this theory is the insurmountable fact that it takes more heat units to extract the 70 to 80 per cent. of moisture in house garbage than remains to be utilized after the moisture has been extracted And since it has been demonstrated that garbage may be disposed of in sanl- tary way by reduction; and also that ashes and cinders make an excellent filling for low places, clay holes and for street foundations, there remains, ,..aaeom the standpoint of economy, no ,1od reason why the almost impos- ole should be attempted by costly
 d after all only partial incinera-
 Dn.
 In many cities cinders, of the char
 tier produced by large manufactur-
 ,p plants. have fixed market value .s foundation material for concrete walks and pavements. This is true in Chicago where an immense amount of payement of this kind is laid every year. The cinders are given away at the manufacturing plants where they are produced and men with teams earn good wages hauling and delivering them to contractors throughout the city. In Chicago, too, as the unim- proved portions of the city are several feet below the established grade, there is demand for clean filling material; and now that the city has passed an or dinance calling for the separation of ashes from all other household refuse, the problem of disposition of this class of refuse may be considered as solved along both sanitary and economic lines
 Aside from ashes and cinders there remain in city refuse many articles which. when properly picked and sort ed from the common mass of which they form part, have a recognized market value They are in as steady demand as any of the we'll known sta. p1es of modern trade. Roughly emu merated they are. rags, bottles, metal of all kinds. old cans, old rubber, pieces Of carpet. cast-off shoes and clothes and paper Without attempting 10 show in detail the uses fo ~hich all eff the articles mentioned a1e put and the volume of fxaae they xeftesent 2 feF of *6& Mor< znzoox zaz't only psed| bs