DESTRUCTOR TO GO

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 71, 16 December 1938, Page 8

DESTRUCTOR TO GO

Tipping System For Refuse

Disposal

END OF NUISANCE IN

SIGHT

For a quarter of a century people who reside on the slopes of Mount, 4 ictoria have complained of the nuisance caused by the Wellington City Corporation destructor in Oriental Parade. Inis nuisance has been caused, not by the smoke from the big concrete stack, but bv the charred and unconsumed debris which is carried aloft with the smoke and deposited on people’s properties. There have, from time to time, been petitions to the mayor and council to ameliorate these conditions, and theic has been much relief at the statement made at the city council meeting on ■Wednesday that after April 1 next the whole of the city’s refuse is to be tipped. That means the end of the destructor, it is hoped, and its stack, which has been a landmark for the last 30 years. The present refuse destructor is not the first ’Wellington possession of the kind. ' Wellington bad its destructor as far back as 18S8 This was supplied and erected by Manlove, Alllot and Fry, at a cost of £4403. it is recorded that in 1907-8 this destructor got rid of 20,000 cartloads of rubbish. Indeed, so great was the increase in rubbish as the city grew that in that year the city council decided that a new destructor of greater capacity would have to be purchased. Tenders were called and that of Heenan and Jfroude, Ltd., of Manchester, was accepted. The cost was £12,032. This necessitated a new chimney stack. For some time the two stacks stood side byside; but eventually the old .brick chimney was demolished. The present one is of reinforced concrete, strengthened with iron bands, after the development of some cracks following earthquakes.

Improvement Plan.

The removal of the destructor chimney will be another step forward in the general improvement of that locality, planned by the city engineer, Mr. K. E. Luke. It is not intended to raze the destructor buildings, at least not for some time to come, so that the stack itself may remain in position, but the proposal accepted by the council is to convert the area 'between the building and Oriental Parade into a reserve, with a. site for tepid 'baths at the -northern end. After April 1 the corporation will dispose of the whole of the city’s refuse by adopting the Bradford system of tipping—mixing the rubbish with clean spoil, working each tip in terraces or tiers, and so levelling off the gullies and depressions in the ground that may 'be used for the purpose. The city engineer stated yesterday that the present plan means that as from March 31 next some 80 per cent, of the city’s refuse will be tipped and not burnt at the destructor. There are, however, certain classes of rubbish .which has to be burnt, and the destructor will be used for that purpose, pending the erection, on sites not yet definitely determined, of tw-o incinerators. This applies to certain ship’s refuse aud. other matter from the city which cannot be effectively burled. In the meantime a plan is being prepared by the engineer of possible tipping sites in and around the city for submission to the approval of the works committee. Already- some work has been done in that direction at Central Park, and the Chaytor .Street tip site will within a few years provide the city with a fine playground in a locality where is is urgently needed. In 90 per cent, of the cases the grounds built up by this tipping system will be used for recreational purposes.