\l.\V YORK 



through the harbor mi the barges t a plant at 1'arn-n 

 I -land at Rockaway Inlet in lower New York Bay. 

 Urn- the refuse is put into metal retorts. \Yater is 

 added, the retorts are closed, steam is turned on, and 

 the garbage is cooked until the contained grease becomes 

 fluid. The heating is then stopped and the liquid run 

 off. The grease is separated, chilled, and sold by the 

 utilization company. The residue from the retorts is 

 j tressed and utilized as a basis for agricultural fertili- 

 zers. This process is employed in a number of large 

 cities in America. The company which does the work 

 receives a substantial bonus from the city. The New 

 York Sanitary Utilization Company has contracts for the 

 three boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. 

 For many years the refuse of New York was not 

 separated but collected in a mixed condition and car- 

 ried out to the ocean for disposition. During a tem- 

 porary suspension of the Barren Island reduction plant, 

 due to its destruction by fire in the summer of 1906, 

 a part of the kitchen refuse of New York was carried 

 out to sea, as had been customary in some other years. 

 In all, about 125,000 cart loads of 1^ cubic yards each 

 were disposed of in this manner. The barges dis- 

 charged their cargoes at a point midway between the 

 New Jersey and New York shores and about fifteen 

 miles from land. About 1100 cart loads a day was 

 the average. Owing to complaints from the numerous 

 summer resorts on the shores of New York and New 

 Jersey, a careful investigation into the fate of the gar- 

 bage was made by the Metropolitan Sewerage Com- 

 mission at the request of the mayor of New York. The 

 refuse was found floating in the water over an area of 

 many square miles; it was washed upon the beaches 



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