Garbage
DISPOSAL OF. The question of the proper disposal of garbage and refuse has been one of the most important problems of municipal life.
In the United States, the term garbage is used to designate kitchen waste of animal or vegetable origin, incident to the preparation and serving of food.
Aside from household wastes, there are various classes of trade and manufacturing refuse, such as paper, rags, and shavings. It is the custom to keep organic and inorganic wastes in separate receptacles. Ashes are the chief inorganic substances, but no practical method has been found for their use, except as a filling. Garbage collection in large cities is undertaken by the city. A relatively small number of cities and towns have adopted thoroughly modern sanitary methods of garbage and refuse disposal.
The first garbage furnaces used to incinerate garbage, were installed in Great Britain. The first furnace in the United States built for a city was in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1887. Furnaces are of various types. Most of them are constructed upon English models. The sorting of refuse has come to be highly specialized in some cities of the United States. The first city to install a well equipped refuse sorting plant was Boston. In sorting, the refuse is brought to a station, dumped and shoveled into an inclined conveyor from which are sorted the various grades of paper, rags, and other kinds of merchantable refuse. The remainder is dumped automatically into a furnace and burned. There are refuse sorting plants at Buffalo, Pittsburgh, New York, and other cities.
Garbage reduction is intended to recover grease and fertilizing material from animal and vegetable waste, while at the same time sanitary means are afforded for final disposal. The equipment required is somewhat elaborate, and includes tanks, dryers, grinding mills, and other apparatus. Many cities have municipal reduction plants. These GARCIA include Cleveland, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Buffalo, N. Y.; New York City; and other cities.
Following the World War the utilization of garbage by feeding to hogs increased rapidly in the United States. The cities of Ba Baltimore, Newark, Buffalo, and St. Louis changed from reduction to hog feeding, in 1919. In many other cities this method was used in disposing of garbage.