MUNICIPAL SANITATION NOTES.

Abstract

Profit from Garbage. A great deal has been heard from time to time about the profit to be derived from the utilization of municipal wastes, such as garbage, ashes and other refuse. Most of the statements which appear in the daily press, and even in sanitary journals, are entirely without foundation. Schemes are advertised for the utilization of grease, tankage, paper and junk, and for the production of heat, light and power, and the public is led to believe that the municipality can not only defray a part of the cost of collection, and disposal by such utilization, but can even make a net profit above all expenses. Often times it proves that the cost of utilization is as great, or even greater, than the value of the products saved, so that the total cost of disposal is not even lowered but rather increased. In no case, except the one to be referred to, has the writer ever known of an instance where the value of the products sold yielded a net profit over and above the cost of collection and disposal. In 1910 the city of Worcester obtained a net profit from its garbage, over and above the cost of collection and utilization. The total cost of collection that year was $27,721.29, and the cost of feeding it to swine on the Poor Farm was $11,318.39, thus making the total cost $39,039.68. The value of the pork and swine sold was $43,224.25, leaving a profit of $4,184.57. This phenomenal success was due, of course, to the exceptionally high price of pork in 1910, but for many years the city of Worcester has defrayed the larger part of the cost of collecting its garbage from the profits of its hog farm. The collection of garbage in Worcester is taken care of by the Overseers of the Poor, who feed the garbage to swine upon the Poor Farm. The success of this work is due chiefly to its management by Mr. T. T. Schouler, the Superintendent, whose knowledge of the business has been of so much