Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1917-12-13
TO STOP Waste
IN ARMY CAMPS
War Department Prepares Plans
to Enforce the Most
Rigid Economy.
SOME USE FOR EVERYTHING
Effect Of New Plan Is to Turn Into
Large Profit What Hitherto Has
Been a Very Considerable
Expense. >.

Washington.-The war department
has taken elaborate and comprehen-
| sive 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 mimi
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 de-
| 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
dealing with problems of eliminating
waste.
The food administration has re-
| ceived from the secretary Of war an
announcement of thorough-going
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 a single trans
| fer station" under the direction of the
sanitary inspector. Through the use
| of the two-can system, wastes will be
| tightly 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-
| ton is carefully safeguarded and is
| under the absolute direction of 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 a point at least
| three miles distant from the reServa-
| ton. There the wastes will be COM
| Dletely 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 eStl-
mated that there are 1900 animals at
each cantonment, producing 12O tons
of manure per day. At the date of
the report the manure from IL can
tonments had been sold for $240, 800
annually.
Bio Saving Through Garbage.
The greatest element Of saving is
through the garbage. This has been
sold for an annual price of $446,-
394.57. The garbage from Ii Of the
environments will be used for feeding
swine. It is estimated on the basis or
experiments conducted at the Chilli
Gothic cantonment, that the garbage
waste from 10 to Is men will feed one
hog and enable it to add to its weight
one pound per day. At this rate, the
garbage from these Ii environments
will produce 18,98O,O0O 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 It would have cost ap-
proximately 100000 for the installa-
ton of incinerator plants and an an
nual charge Of approximately $595,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 $1,707,84O.
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 q large
profit what has hitherto been very
considerable expense.