MODERN METHODS OF STREET CLEANING 



there is difficulty in having the refuse separated at 

 the houses. 



The kitchen waste is collected at varying intervals, 

 depending upon the season of year and the concen- 

 tration of population in the different parts of the city, 

 the intervals ranging from every day to twice a week. 

 This kitchen material weighs about 1100 pounds per 

 cubic yard. It differs materially from English refuse, 

 containing more moisture, less inflammable matter, 

 and, at some seasons, at least, more vegetable refuse. 

 Analyses of New York garbage have been made, but 

 nothing short of exhaustive examinations and most 

 carefully digested data can give a correct idea of its 

 composition. It must be remembered that garbage is 

 a mixture, every ingredient of which is likely to vary 

 in composition and amount. The garbage taken to 

 Barren Island is believed to contain about 70 per cent 

 water, 24| per cent vegetable fiber, 3 per cent grease, 

 and 2| per cent rubbish. In 1896 Street Cleaning 

 Commissioner Waring obtained as an average, on 

 analyzing 300 tons of summer refuse from four different 

 cities, 71 per cent water, 20 per cent tankage, 7 per cent 

 rubbish, and 2 per cent grease. The quantity of kitchen 

 refuse collrcted by the department in the whole city 

 of New York in 1906 was 715,625 cubic yards or 

 392,357 tons. 



Kitchen refuse is collected by the Department of 

 Street Cleaning in open metal carts and carried to the 

 water-front where it is tipped into barges or to depots 

 from which it is removed by trolley cars. Most of the 

 barges belong to a contracting company whose busi- 

 ness it is to transport and dispose of the refuse by 

 the process termed reduction. The refuse is carried 



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