li KOPEAN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



It is surprising to note how much household refuse 

 is put upon land in one way or another. Berlin 

 disposes of all its household refuse in this way, as do 

 Amsterdam, the city of London, and many other large 

 Mini small places. Until very recently, the city of 

 Paris sold all its decomposable house refuse as manure 

 for the cultivation of sugar-beets. The city of Belfast 

 burns only about one-tenth of its municipal refuse, 

 the rest going upon land. Salford burns about half. 

 Manchester owns 3700 acres of rural estates purchased 

 for the sole object of receiving city refuse. Refuse 

 from the city of Glasgow is sold to farmers scattered 

 in fifteen counties in Scotland. All the cities here 

 mentioned, except Berlin, have refuse destructors 

 also. 



In Great Britain the destruction of household refuse 

 by burning in special furnaces was begun about thirty 

 years ago and is now generally considered a desirable 

 procedure wherever it can be followed. The sanitary 

 advantages of destroying refuse by burning in this 

 manner are so well known as scarcely to need mention 

 here. Less is known concerning the cost of this 

 method of disposal as compared with utilizing refuse 

 1 > Y putting it on land. 



When the total cost of burning is considered, the 

 process often appears less economical than is popu- 

 larly supposed. In fact, counting the cost of repairs, 

 interest on the investment, sinking fund charges, and 

 the wages of the attendants, it not infrequently happens 

 that it would be cheaper for a foreign city to turn the 

 household refuse into manure, and apply it to land. 



To partly offset the cost of burning refuse, efforts 

 are usually made to utilize the heat produced to raise 



57 



