THE DISPOSAL OF REFUSE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21019, 7 May 1930, Page 6

THE DISPOSAL OF REFUSE.

, BRADFORD'S ECONOMICAL METHOD. My visit to Bradford recently coincided with the arrival of the 277th party of visitors bent on inspecting, not the numberless amenities of which the citizens arc justly proud, but the city’s refuse tips (writes a correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph). The refuse of Bradford is the • most beautiful and the most profitable in the. world. Tin cans, waste paper, worn-out carpets, broken crockery, ashes, and all the myriad debris of dustbin and gutter have provided the city • with amenities which visitors, have come from every corner of the British Isles to see. The ratepayers are saved £IOOO a week by the unique method of disposing of refuse in Bradford. Parks, gardens, allotments, recreation grounds, tennis courts, and football and cricket fields have been laid out without cost. Most ambitious of all, there is now coming into being a huge sports stadium, which, when completed, will be capable of seating 250,000 people. All this has been made possible by the inventive enterprise of Mr Ernest Call, director of the Bradford Cleansing Department. He has perfected a method of tipping refuse which, so far from being unsightly, is actually beautiful, which is never offensive, never harbours vermin, and which enables the tip, instead of remaining a barren eyesore, to be covered within a few weeks with a luxurious growth of grass. Each tipping ground—usually a disused quarry or a piece of waste land—is first of all carefully surveyed and plans made. It is then . divided into zones of the uniform width of 24 feet. Every load of rubbish is tipped exactly in accordance with this plan, mapped out with white posts. When one zone has been filled the next above it is begun; this rises from the'- lower layer in a smooth bank at an angle of precisely 40 degrees. By the time the final tier has been reached the original pit presents the appearance of an amphitheatre descending in broad steps to a level space at the bottom. Grass, bushes, and even trees grow quickly on this unpromising rubbish because each tier is thinly covered with road sweepings and sediments from the street drains. Loads are so tipped that at the end of the day’s work only a single load of these fertile' sweepings is required to cover up the unsightly tippings. Thus covered, the rubbish never causes annoyance to residents in houses near the tip. Each load, moreover, is disposed with scientific exactitude. All tin cans, buckets, boxes, and similar receptacles are stood upright, so that they may be filled with ashes and the smaller debris; all rolls of hoarding paper and old carpets are spread out flat, so that they may not prevent a flue to fan the internal combustion of the pile into , a flame. This method rules out the possibility of fire, offers no nooks and crannies ■ for rats and other vermin, and ensures the tiers being firm and permanent. _ Tile danger of rain washing down the highest tiers has been met by slanting each tier slightly inwards at the edge; and the ,40 degrees incline of the banks has been chosen as presenting too step a surface for children to play on before the whole has been completed. Many things have been done with this scientific method of refuse disposal, the most remarkable achievement being the gigantic stadium. This is still in an incomplete stage, and many thousands of loads of rubbish will eventually be tipped before it becomes one of Yorkshire’s county playgrounds. Eight grassy terraces descend from the road to a level tract, which will eventually be the playing field 120 yards long by 80 yards wide. The tiers arc steep enough to provide every spectator with an uninterrupted view, of the field. . The plans drawn up by Mr Call leave an area at the side of the field for a restaurant, ballroom and dressing rooms for the players. There is probably no other place in the world where the authorities would permit domestic refuse to be tipped in the grounds of a hospital. Yet one of the tips I visited reached to within a dozen feet of the hospital windows. Here the Cleansing Department is providing a tennis’ 1 court and bowling green for the patients. A considerable area has been completed, and trees and shrubs have been planted along the paths. In another place allotment gardens have been laid out on ground which for many feet consists of nothing but domestic rubbish. Again 30,000 loads of ashes and tin cans have filled up a derelict lake and the moat of old Bolling Hall, and provided- two large and well-drained playing fields for the new Bolling Hall School. In every quarter of the city tennis courts, bowling greens, arid gardens provided by a like means are to be numbered by scores. In most towns the choice of a refuse tip may be relied upon to draw protests from the inhabitants of neighbouring houses. But in Bradford the Cleansing Department is besieged by applicants who want rubbish dumped on or near their land. Hundreds of thousands of loads have been asked for, and over 600,000 loads remain to be supplied as soon (is the dust bins yield them. Most towns burn their rubbish in destructors, and Bradford did the same until, ns a war measure in 1915, Mr Cdll tried the more economical method of tipping. The result was that of the four destructors possessed by the city, three were soon, closed down, and four new ones projected were abandoned. Destructor methods cost about 6s per load to dispose of refuse; under the Bradford tipping method the cost is only ll jd per load. The single destructor now in use is required only to deal with condemned meat and fish offal, from which valuable by-products are obtained. The profit from this one remaining destructor is over £2OOO per annum. Exemplary methods extend to every section of the department, and local authorities from every corner of the kingdom are being sent by the Ministry of Health to observe and copy Bradford’s model. The smallest details and the comforts of the staff receive attention. In a corner of the scrupulously clean stables a goat is kept to provide milk for the labourers’ tea.