CLEANING A CITY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3769, 8 June 1926, Page 30

CLEANING A CITY.

DISPOSAL OF GARBAGE,

(F«om Oub Own Cobbespondent.) 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 efficient to fill a train of trucks six miles and adialf long. bo it is estimated. The refuse is dumped at sea and destroyed in incinerators, but the authorities have awake led to the fact that, scientifically treated, much of this garbage that has been destroyed would have a big commerciri value. An analysis has shown clearly the fuel value of certain types of this refuse, the fertilising value of others, and the quantities of grease and fat that -right 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 is 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 f it. One may wonder what they can get out of theue bins, but it looks now, in the light of the council’s analysis of the city’s refuse, that even the most unpromis-ing-looking places and things sometimes have their value. Coiuncils which have perhaps regarded themselves as above the law, but which have had no scruples about dragging offending ratepayers to court, have had something of a rude sin ck. As they are vested with the enforcement of the health laws, the Board oi Health feels that they should be the first scrupulously to observe them, and it has prosecuted not a few of them. The Board of Health appears to be engaged in a cleaning-up campaign in country towns. Under its prosecutions, one council has been fined on different charges connected with the conduct of its sanitary service. Another council, prosecuted for the same thing, was also threatened that if failed to appoint a health officer the board would make such appointment, fix the officer’s salary, and compel the council to pay it. In another country town the sanitary contractor was fined. Thus the Board of Health is moving through the country, tightening up the health laws. ‘ •** >r...