CLEANSING A CITY.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 165, 14 June 1926, Page 11

CLEANSING A CITY.

SYDNEY’S BIG PROBLEM. THE DISPOSAL OF REFUSE. SYDNEY, May 27. The disposal of the garbage that collects in Sydney is a tremendous problem. If it were allowed to accumulate for a year it would require nearly 6000 railway trucks to carry it away. The food waste, bones, _ etc., would be sufficient to fill a train of trucks six and a-half miles long, so it is estimated. The refuse is dumped at sea or destroyed ill incinerators, but the authorities have awakened to the fact that, scientifically treated, much of this garbage that has been destroyed would have a big commercial value. An analysis has shown clearly the fuel value of certain types of the refuse, the fertilising value of others, and the quantities of grease and fat that might also be reclaimed for subsidiary manufacturing purposes. The city cleansing engineer now proposes to submit to the City Council a practical recommendation as to the methods of disposal and treatment of this garbage in the future. The chemical treatment of certain classes of garbage in many American cities, has been pointed to as an illustration of what Sydney can do. There, however, it is obligatory on the housewives and others to segregate the garbage into three sections, each of which i 3 collected by different carts. But one cannot picture the Sydney housewives submitting to this. When quiet steals down upon Sydney’s streets at night, one may see old men and old women furtively rummaging about the refuse bins outside of shop doors. They make a business of it. One may wonder what they, can get out of these bins, but it looks now, in the light of the council’s analysis of the city’s refuse, that even the most unpromising-looking places and things sometimes have their value.