War is Hell. So said Sherman, and it is a verdict with which the whole world will agree. But war is also a powerful educating force. If any convincing testimony upon this point were required we have only to reflect upon the effective manner in which the recent European conflagration caused the British nation to revise its methods and practices. The stress of war, ravages by submarines, depletion of transport facilities by sea, road, and rail, and the shortage of crops and labour, compelled the community to consider the food question in a light totally different from that with which it was regarded during the days of cheapness and plenty. We were forced to digest lessons which under normal conditions we would have ignored in contempt. Whether the changes wrought in our complex social and commercial life are destined to be permanent in character is another question, but the continuation of high prices is tending to consummate this end, the process being assisted by the reflection that the good old days are destined never to return, at least not for many years to come.
In the previous chapter I have recounted how the engineer is now striving to conserve rather than to destroy what we throw to one side as of no further use. By inventive ingenuity he is endeavouring to bring home to our local authorities how to extract further utilitarian value from what the household discards. The question immediately arises as to what extent this tendency towards preservation and construction, as opposed to destruction and loss, is being supported in a practical manner by the authorities concerned.
It is to be feared that, considered on the whole, the seeds which are being sown are falling on barren ground. However, here and there our civic and municipal authorities, especially those who evince a distinct pride in being numbered among the pioneers of progress, are fully alive to the possibilities of the problem, and are leaving no stone unturned, nor sparing any exertion, to bring home to the public at large that refuse is merely matter in the wrong place. In some instances this reversion to rigid economical methods is not of modern record, the practice of salvage or recovery of abandoned products having been practised along more or less comprehensive lines, as indicated by scientific thought, for many years past.
The city of Glasgow is able to point to a convincing record of what can be achieved in this direction. In the years 1908-9 the fathers of the progressive Scottish city derived £41,000—$205,000—from this source, while during the ten years ending 1918 what is commonly regarded as rubbish and useless has been induced to yield no less than £50,300—$251,500. Surely what can be achieved in one city is equally possible of attainment in every other community throughout the British Isles to a greater or lesser degree!
Glasgow has evolved its own organization for retrieving and utilising the city refuse and in accordance with the conditions which obtain in the locality. Speaking generally, the system may be described as one of separating the saleable from the unsaleable. Previous to the year 1917 efforts were devoted mainly to the preparation of fertiliser from the contents of the domestic dust-bin, as well as the recovery of tins, but, owing to the high prices which other so-called waste was commanding, and in deference to the national appeal towards greater economy, the reclamation of other materials was taken in hand with highly gratifying results.
The refuse of the city is collected in the usual manner and conveyed to the depot. It is weighed upon receipt. It is then dispatched up an inclined roadway to a tipping floor, where the vehicles discharge their loads through shoots. Beneath the latter are disposed horizontal revolving riddles of conical form. The fine refuse and cinders escape through the grids, but the bulky material is carried forward to be ejected on to a travelling conveyor.
The ashes and cinders which fall through the open mesh of the first riddles are caught by a second and stationary screen. The mesh of this sieve being finer only allows the dust to escape to fall into a mixing machine. Here it is combined with a regulated quantity of excrementitious matter drawn from an overhead tank. The materials are thoroughly blended, and the mixture ultimately falls direct into railway wagons. In this way all intermediate handling is obviated. This material constitutes a first-class fertilizing agent, is keenly sought by farmers, and accordingly meets with a ready sale.
The cinders, arrested by the secondary stationary screen, are collected in a similar manner. They are not sold, but dumped into the bunkers of the works to fire the boilers, thereby assisting materially in the generation of the power necessary to drive the plant.
The bulkier material remaining in the revolving conical grid is discharged on to a conveyor. While being moved forward all material of value, such as waste-paper, tins, scrap-metal, waste-food, rags, bones, glass and so on are picked off by hand to be thrown into bins. The manual labour employed to carry out this task of segregation may be considered to be an adverse cost factor. But against this expenditure for separation by hand must be set that formerly entailed in the destruction or other disposal of this material. Accordingly, all things considered, it may be accepted that the revenue derived from this source virtually represents money saved.
In addition to the recovery of paper from the above-mentioned refuse the Cleansing Department also maintains a special service for the collection of such waste from offices, warehouses, and private residences throughout the city area. This procedure has been in operation for many years, but, owing to the scarcity of paper encountered during the war, and the need which consequently arose to display accentuated enterprise in this direction, an auxiliary collecting service was inaugurated. It was conducted by the members of the Women’s Volunteer Reserve, who received a percentage of the profits arising from the sale of the waste-paper thus gathered.