GARBAGE is kitchen refuse and table waste, offal or discarded material from the preparation and use of human food. Assembled, it is an ever-varying mixture of animal and vegetable food waste, the nitrogenous or pro teids being largely in excess of the non-nitro g enous properties. Garbage decomposes rapidly in the open air and becomes offensive, especially in warm weather. When thrown upon the ground and allowed to decompose, or when used as a fertilizer in a raw state, it may contaminate sources of water supply, and thus become a menace to public health; but, contrary to the popular belief, the garbage heap does not gen erate bacteria— they die when exposed on the garbage pile. In country districts and in most towns and small cities much garbage is used as food for domestic animals, and when fresh no more proper disposition of it can be made. When the material is allowed to become par tially decomposed before feeding, and where caustic solutions are used for the cleansing of cooking utensils, etc., the mortality precludes its use. American cities produce from one-half pound to one pound per day per capita. Euro pean cities produce less than one-half of this amount. Analysis of American city garbage shows moisture, 70 per cent to 80 per cent; grease, 2 per cent to 3 per cent ; and solids, principally wood fibre, 18 per cent to 28 per E cent. Garbage from uropean cities contains more of solids and less of moisture and grease.
Previous to 1900 the garbage problem was a serious trouble to officials and boards of health in American towns and cities. The thoughtless citizen throws it in the street, or leaves it in his back yard until his neighbors rebel, or he burns it in his range or furnace and has more trouble with his neighbors. He puts it with ashes and other refuse and it is dumped on a vacant lot, or a depression in the ground is filled with it, and injunction proceedings are brought by near-by residents ; protests and complaints of every description are made to councilmen, heads of departments and boards of health. Newspapers take it up and everyone who can possibly be held accountable is abused. The first attempts at collection and disposal in a community are apt to be crude and imperfect.
All kinds of household wastes are put together in boxes or barrels and teams are hired to cart it away. In some cases the city owns the horses and wagons required for the work. This lasts until there is no longer a dumping place within hauling distance. In a few instances it has been taken to sea in scows and dumped in deep water. This is found objectionable, as the lighter portions float to shore. Total destruc tion of the material is the next resort In ventors and promoters take advantage of the situation, and it is proposed to burn or utilize the material at huge profit. Corporations are formed, stock is sold and plants are built for final disposal. Then there are indignation meet ings and injunction proceedings. No one wants a garbage-disposal plant near his property. Should it be completed and started, it is gen erally closed within a year, either by injunction or owing to the lack of funds for its operation. The country is strewn with such wrecks.
It has been found that when garbage is mixed with ashes, paper and other household waste, final disposal is rendered very difficult, the mass being unfit for filling, fuel or fertilizer. Numerous American cities separate household waste into three parts, namely, °food waste,* °combustible waste') and "non-combustible waste? By this means final disposal is more readily effected, each class of waste having prop erties of commercial value when kept separate from the others. Most European cities do not attempt a separation, excepting it be at the plant where final disposal is effected. In some cases the whole mass is passed through what are termed °destructors,° burning the unconsumed carbon found in the ashes and the combustible portions of other household waste. This system of final disposal has not been found satisfactory in American cities, and has been equally unsatis factory in some European cities, particularly on the Continent, where, as in America, it is found that much additional fuel is required in order to maintain a proper temperature in the furnaces.