Name of CityAmount of Garbage Collected During
June, 1916July, 1916June, 1917July, 1917
Rochester2563 tons2580 tons1,870 tons2,167 tons
New York City
(Boro. Manhattan)82,503 cu. yds.89,568 cu. yds.76,550 cu. yds.84,628 cu. yds.
(Boro. Brooklyn)
Kingston140 tons140 tons120 tons120 tons
Cortland37½ tons37½ tons31½ tons31½ tons
Schenectady312 tons, 680 lbs.350 tons330 tons, 655 lbs.398 tons, 1,400 lbs.
[[52]]Syracuse1,100 tons1,373 tons1,062 tons1,087 tons
Albany954 bbls.1,094 bbls.786 bbls.877 bbls.
Buffalo2,319.770 tons1,250.280 tons2,247.790 tons1,748.700 tons
Utica40 tons daily40 tons daily35 tons daily35 tons daily

[52]. Increase probably due to change from contract to municipal system of collection.

Omaha, Nebraska, reports that for the year 1917 the bulk of garbage was about the same as the previous year, but that no meats, bread or potatoes were found in it. The collection of garbage has been a little over one-third less since the conservation of food went into effect.

What percentage of this reduction will continue after the war is problematical, but it is agreed by all experts that never again will the American garbage pail be so productive as it has been in the past.

Garbage Disposal

A choice of seven methods is offered for the disposal of garbage. They are feeding to swine, dumping on land, dumping into large volumes of water, disposing by sanitary fill, burial, incineration and reduction. In selecting its disposal system a city should bear in mind the importance and cost of a collection system.

Some cities collect and dispose of their garbage by contract, others collect by contract and dispose of it themselves, or vice versa, and still others have all the work done by the municipality. Experience has proved that a city can operate a disposal plant just as efficiently as they can a collection system.

Feeding to Swine

Most of the smaller cities in this country dispose of a part of or all their garbage by feeding to swine, but so far as the State Bureau of Municipal Information has been able to learn, only four maintain municipal piggeries. These are Worcester, New Haven, Brockton, and Taunton, Massachusetts. The others either collect their garbage by contract and sell it or give it to farmers or those operating piggeries, or maintain a municipal collection and sell to a contractor who maintains a piggery.