Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-08-28
CHIEF J.. II. NELSON
On the Peoples Part In Keeping the
CITY Clean

CITY clean
TNHE L1ople Of the city can play an i'm
portant part in helping the authorit.
keep the city clean, says j. Fl. Neeson'
Deputy Chief Of the Bureau of Highways.
who has charge of the street cleaning ana
the collection Of rubbish. ashes and garbage.
keeping the city clean and the collection
of waste of all kiI ~ said Chief Neeson,
"is really an engineering problem, and the
modern development Of 1t has come within
the last ten or fifteen years. For fifty years
the cleaning had been done by contractors.
although there was one short period in that
time during which the city essayed to do the
work as we are new doing It, But. Tor some
reason, after this period it reverted again 10
the contractor system. Tbs was much used
as I'm argument by the opponents OF munic-
ipal cleaning.
"The public can do lot in helping the
officials keep the city clean IL it only Will
do it, With the intelligent operation
the people we could have city almost 100
rer cent clean: without that co operation
the task becomes almost hopeless.
A Gigantic Task
The business of keeping the streets clean,
collecting the ashes waste and rbage costs
more than 5000. 900 a year. Cleaning and
collecting In the built-up areas alone means
keeping clean about ,, one hundred square
rubbish once l. week and garbage four times
week; but in certain OF the more densely
populated ectiO?s there is daily collection
of garbage.
This is more than the average American
city gets. for outside of Philadelphia and
New York there are usually garbage collec-
tions not more than three times n week
This would also be sufficient in Philadelphia
if people would take more care in the man
ner in which the garbage Is made ready for
the collectors.
"First of all, we need more and better
co operation between the public and the
officials. We realize fully that a certain
amount of dirt and litter Is unavoidable
but what we are striving to do Is to reduce
this amount to n minimum, but we cannot
make much progress with this unless the
public helps.
How to Handle Ashes
''The manner in which the public can
do the most Is to be more careful of the
way in which the ashes and waste are put
out. There IS only one way to handle
ashes, and that Is to use q metal container !;
and this should not be filed all the way
TO the top. A large number Of persons put
out their ashes In any manner, some not
even using container of any sort, but
wrapping them in papers or putting them
in wooden boxes. cardboard boxes, peach
DhSRetS anu TcCtHluCltS. none
which Is suitable. Occasionally We will
find the ashes simply dumped on the pave
ment, from which they have to be shoveled
up.
1.-THE men have not the time to do this
work and then clean up after they have
done it. Wooden boxes are especially bad
as they often break and are usually filed
as full as they will go. At least three
inches should be left at the top, in order
that the nuisance from dust be minimized
eve also insist that ashes and rubbish
be kept separate, because they are disposed
of In different manners. Up to the present
time we have been putting the waste mate.
rial, that Is rubbish, on the open city
dumps but the time has come when we are
going to incinerate this rubbish. We are
beginning in the northeast section of the
city and the bids for the incnerating plant
will be opened next month.
Rubbish and Waste Paper
"But we have much more trouble with
the manner in which rubbish and waste
paper are put out than with anything else.
II is a simpler matter for us to handle ashes
than to handle waste. The proper way TO
handle rubbish or waste paper Is to bundle
II and tie the bundles.
"We have had a lot OF trouble with the
scavengers, or the persons who 20 around
before the rubbish collectors get to the
houses and open the bundles or go through
everything to see what they can find. We
have been after these people hard and have
succeeded In reducing their activities by
almost 100 per cent. During the war they
were especially rampant and there were
literally hundreds Of them at work inds-