The Leavenworth echo. [volume] (Leavenworth, Wash.) 1904-current, 1917-12-14
TO STOP WASTE
IN ARMY CAMPS
War Department Prepares Plans
TO Enforce the Most
Rigid Economy.
SOME use FOR EVERYTHING
Effect Of New Plan lie to Turn Into
Large Profit What Hitherto Has
Been a Very Considerable
Expense.

Washington.-The war department
has taken elaborate and comprehen-
slve precautions to prevent waste IN
the army environments, which will soon
contain more than 100000 men, and
in the embarkatiOn camps. In the
feeding of the men waste will be mini
mixed through the fact that the food
will be prepared under the direction
Of mess cooks, who will be trained by
special courses in army cooking
schools.
The officers training camps have not
been under the control of the war ue-
partment so far as the food supplies
are concerned, and the waste In those
camps has been due to the lack OF
skilled management IN the handling
of food. A committee representing the
war department and the United States
food administration will also assist IN
dealing with problems of eliminating
waste.
The food administration has re-
eeived from the secretary of war an
announcement of a thorough-golng
plan for conserving all the waste ma
terial of the National army camps,
which will result in salvaging many
thousands of dollars.
Collecting the Waste.
The army's first consideration In
planning this work has been the SAM
tary and hygienic problem. AT each
cantonment the wastes will be collect
ed and transported to single trans
fer station" under the direction of the
sanitary Inspector Through the use
Of the two-can system, wastes will be
lightly enclosed throughout their col
lection. Sterilized cans will be sub
stituted for the filled cans at the
kitchens, the nuisance of disagreeable
odors and danger from flies being re-
duced to a minimum. Every step in
the process of reclamation and utiliZa-
tion is carefully safeguarded and Is
under the absolute direction of a san
itary force, each contractor being
placed under heavy bonds.
At the transfer station, the wastes
are turned over to a contractor, who
will remove them to point at least
three miles distant from the reserva-
tiOn. There the wastes will be COM
pIetely sorted. Bottles will be ster-
ilized and sold for commercial use. Tin
cans will be baled and the solder, tin
and iron reclaimed. Paper, which is
estimated about five tons per day, will
be baled. Bones will be kept separate
and ground for fertilizer. The hides
of dead animals will be removed and
the carcasses reduced" for grease and
fertilizer.
The chief items of waste will be the
garbage and the manure. 1t is esti-
mated that there are 1000 animals at
each cantonment, producing 120 tons
Of manure per day. At the date Of
the report the manure from II can
comments had been sold for $240,900
annually.
Big Saving Through Garbage.
The greatest element of saving il
through the garbage. This has been
sold for an annual price of $446,-
394.57. The garbage from IS of the
environments will be used for feeding
swine. 1t is estimated on the basis of
experiments conducted Mt the Chilli
cothe cantonment, that the garbage
waste from 10 to 10 men will feed one
hog and enable 1t to add to its weight
one pound per day. At this rate, the
garbage from these 13 environments
will produce 1S,9S0,000 pounds of pork
per year.
When not used for feeding. the gar
bage will be reduced that is, cooked
at high temperature, the grease ex-
tracted, and the remainder ground and
used for fertilizer or feeds.
BY the method of incineration for
merly In use, not only would all these
valuable waste materials have been
destroyed, but 1t would have cost ap.
proximately 100000 for the installa.
ton of incinerator plants and an an
nual charge of approximately S595,OOO
for their operation. When We add to
this saving the amount annually re-
ceIved by the government from these
wastes, the net saving the first year
amounts to $1,707, $40.
The effect of this new plan, there
fore, is not only to conserve large
quantities of valuable food wastes, fer
tilizers ETC., but to turn into a large
profit what has hitherto been a very
considerable expense.