(3) To require collectors to go into basements and back yards and to return the cans to these places.
(4) To collect in rear alleys.
Experience has shown that it is very difficult to enforce a regulation by which cans should be taken from the curb by householders at any particular time after they have been emptied. In many homes the husband is the only person who does this kind of work. The can has to be taken in the morning to the curb. The empty, therefore, must remain in the street until noon and if the collection is not made until afternoon or the husband does not go home to his midday meal, it remains there until night. Many cities report that to eliminate the unsightliness of miscellaneous boxes, pails, cans and barrels which line the curb on collection day the citizens are willing to pay the extra cost of having the collectors take the cans from the basements or rear yards and return them to the same place. It has also been found that rear yard collection facilitates and somewhat reduces the cost of street cleaning.
It is generally agreed that the best plan is to collect from rear alleys, but these do not exist in many cities. In a few places which have alleys the officials say their experience has not been satisfactory; but in nearly every instance there has not been found to exist any cooperation between the collection force and the public, due to the failure of the officials to educate the people.
Time of Collection
Usually ashes and rubbish are collected during the working hours of the day, but often it is customary to collect them in the early hours of the morning, especially in the business section.
Night collection has been satisfactory in some cities. A few having this system require cans to be placed at the curb the night before. These are collected early in the morning and the empty ones taken to the back yard. The principal objection to night collections is the noise of the wagons and the dropping of the empty metal cans.
William H. Edwards, former Commissioner of Street Cleaning in New York, gives the following advantages and disadvantages of day and night collection:
Unsightliness of cans in front of buildings much less evident at night.
Retention of cover on receptacle easier in day time. When covers are removed day work has its disadvantages by the spreading of the dust by the wind.