The cost of incinerating gar e in the United States ranges from $250 $1,000 per annum per 1,000 of population, the average cost being about $600. At Minneapolis the cit's wastes are used to produce steam, which li is ,, and heats the charities and corrections bu1 ings, and in addition lights 31 miles of streets.
(4) Ashes are always available for lowland filling and steam ashes are particularly sought by builders for use in fireproof floors, as a foundation for the cement floors of cellars and as a substratum for sidewalks and flagging. The ash output amounts in the northern parts of America to nearly three-quarters of a cubic yard per citizen per year and many efforts have been made to utilize its various constituents so as to save the cost of carting or boating it away for filling purposes. Ordinary household ash from anthracite coal consists of : Fine ash, 50 per cent; coarse ash, stone and clinker, 30 per cent; coal, 20 per cent. Such recovered coal has a ready cash sale, and while the daily value of the ash from a single building is probably too small to pay for its separation, yet the process may be profitable when conducted on a large scale, in proper buildings and aided by mechan ical means of separation. This recovered coal has an average heating value of about 75 per cent of that of new coal and has many advan tages as household fuel because of its ease of ignition and its freedom from dust, clinker and slate. In the borough of Manhattan, New York. the annual output of ash is per capita. 1,162 pounds, or 3,175 pounds per 1,000 inhabitants daily. This amounts to an average of 12.999 cubic yards in summer and 18,558 cubic yards in winter. The total amount to be handled annually is not far from 5.500,000 cubic yards, or 4,200,000 tons, and the amount of recover able coal contained therein is not far from 1,050,000 tons. The cost of handling, on the basis of an average haul of three-fourths of a mile, is 96 cents per cubic yard. If the ash collections are kept free from street sweepings and garbage, the recovery may be made by a machine capable of separating coal from clin ker; and the value of the recovered coal will be nearly sufficient to meet the expense of ash collection and disposal.
(5) The class of waste including general rubbish— cans, old rubber, paper, rags, bits of metal, etc.— is a perennial delight to scavengers, who withstand dust and smells in order to pick out these things from a mixed mass of animal and vegetable refuse. But since city authorities have learned to keep the different classes of waste separate, this rub bish has become a source of revenue to the city even after paying the cost of collection and sorting. Old cans are sold at $5 per ton for their solder, tin and value as material for cheap castings. Bottles are of two classes, •regtsteredh goods — bottles which have the proprietors -name blown in the plain • _bottles- without nooses.• • The average price, at the place of collection, for °registered* bottles, which by law may be sold only to their original owners, is one cent each. Plain bot tles are put into barrels and sold to dealers at SI 30 per barrel. Broken glass, too, has a mar bxt value of 10 cents per beg. Rubber scrap is worth IS cents per pound at the rubber re claiming factories. Waste paper, when dean, is worth from $4 per ton for newspapers to $40 per ton for fine white paper, the average price for the paper collections of a city being about $9 per ton. Rags vary in price, as do papers, many of the rags being used (or paper stock.
These materials have such value that only a small proportion reaches the carts of the de partment of +;p et .k:wing. urge propoe. tam is by visitation by iunk-cart meo, wiltass t. as c in the bor L.ogh of Manhattan, for instance, some 400, bow purchases amount to about $1,000 per day and only the balance is collected by the department carts. In many cities the privilege of picking over the 'dump' is sold to the high est bidder. In smaller places the pickers are free to exercise their trade for what they can make. An idea of the extent of the trade in these waste materials may he gained from the statement that the yearly collection of old rub bers in the United States amounts to about 17,000 tons, of which some 600 tons per year, worth rs0,000, are collected in the borough of Manhattan. Some of the other yearly collec tions in Manhattan arc as follows: 'Regis tered' bottles — principally syphon bottles, milk bottles and those used for carbonated waters, soda and beer —2,000.000. worth M000; plain bottles, 30.000 barrels, worth $45.000; waste paper, $2,000,000 worth; rags, 515,000 worth; bits of carpet, string, iron, brass, etc., to the amount of several thousand dollars more. Though, as said above, only a small proportion of these things goes to the waste heap, yet, since the department has pro vided separate carts for dry rubbish, the city has received annually nearly $100,000 for the delivery of these collections to contractors at the docks The various materials are delivered mixed from each can, and some $150,000 is paid annually by the contractors to laborers who sort the waste into separate piles, after which it is sold to various dealers. Allowing a if-atonable profit to the contractors, it is prob able that the amount received by them is not less than $300.000. Therefore, these hits of scrap thrown assay by the housekeeper have become worth $100,000 by their collection at the receiving station, and have become worth $.3(l0, 11011 by separation into their component parts. The city of New York now employs large motor carts with eight compartments for ashes along the sides and a V-shaped 'story' above for rubbish. A crew of eight men operate the ear The garbage is collected separately by a smaller car, with a crew of three. Of the 50 largest cities in the United States, 37 require the separation by the household of garbage, ashes and rubbish. All the cities in New York follow this plan. Of the 158 cities listed in the last census of municipalities, cent col lect their wastes by a municipal force, and 28 per cent let contracts for waste removal to gnome parties.
• The peohl of the general separstion•of waste mateeriaY is simple in the household. but difficult in the community. It is all a mattes of education in ethics and community economy and requires strict rules with sure penalties for infraction. If each member of the population would increase the salable value of his house hold wastes one-half cent per day by keeping these wastes separate, the total amount would be sufficient to defray all the expenses of the department of street cleaning in any city in the United States. (See Sisear CLEANING). Con sult Branch, J. G., 'Heat and Light from Munic ipal lAastel (Saint Louis 1906); Capes, W. and Carpenter, j. D., 'Municipal Houseclean ing' (New York 1918); E. R. 'Ref use Disposal' (London 1915); Morse. W. F. 'The Collection and Disposal of Munici Waste' (New York 1908); Venable, W. 'Garbage Crematories in America' (New York 1906).