All reports agree that destructors are very successful from a sanitary standpoint and have the advantage over other methods in that the different classes of waste can be destroyed by one process and gathered in one collection. Several also agree that the destructors when properly constructed and operated, may be centrally located, thus reducing the cost of haul. Another point mentioned is that there is some revenue. The disadvantages pointed out by experts are that, if not properly designed and operated, there will be dust and odors, all refuse must be hauled to the plant and expert workmen must be employed.
The cost of operation varies from city to city, and in each city from month to month, depending upon the season of the year, composition of the garbage and climate. Most incinerator companies guarantee to operate their furnaces at full capacity at about 50 cents per ton. Milwaukee operates for about 57 cents per ton. The cost, including maintenance, depreciation and fixed charges, and operating expenses, averages $1.50 to $2.50 and sometimes $3.00 per ton. The State Board of Health of Ohio found in its investigation that incineration cost from $1.97 to $2.50 in Canton, Ohio; $2.00 to $2.66 in Marion; $1.00 to $1.84 in Steubenville; and $2.58 in Zanesville, during a period of several years. These figures include interest, depreciation, maintenance and repair charges.
J. W. Turrentine, of the United States Department of Agriculture, who made a study of garbage disposal plants, says in a Department bulletin that the average net cost of incineration per ton as obtained in a number of instances is $2.11 per ton, and that in one of the cities considered there is a credit for power generated of 22 cents per ton of garbage incinerated.
Most garbage incinerator manufacturers claim a life of 20 years for their plants with reasonable renewals.
Morse figures that when fuel is necessary the cost of destroying refuse and garbage in crematories is approximately 50 cents per ton. He also says that the cost of operating destructors is from 50 cents to 70 cents per ton for actual labor expenses, while the cost of operating the modern high-temperature destructor will not exceed from 50 cents to 60 cents per ton. Deducting credit for power, the cost will drop, he says, to 30 cents or less per ton. Depreciation and capital expenses are not included in Morse’s calculations.
Greeley asserts that the cost of operation will range from about $1.00 to $1.50 per ton, “but local conditions may alter these limits.”
C. O. Bartlett, sanitary engineer, says: “So far as disposal of garbage is concerned, in incinerators, it is coming to be generally understood that this method is far from sanitary and is essentially wrong in that it neglects to obtain the value for the products so collected.”
Rudolph Herring, Sanitary Expert, says: “In incineration, if sufficient fuel is added, the combustion can be made perfect and the garbage can be destroyed without offense and converted into inodorous gases, ashes and clinker. Whatever sanitary objection has been made to this process has resulted from preventable causes. Unless ashes and rubbish are combined with garbage in sufficient quantities to produce the necessary heat, the steam production is deficient and other fuel must be added.”
Robert H. Wylde favors incineration at a high temperature: “Here we have a method that is at once sanitary, expeditious and economical in first cost and maintenance.” He also says that this method is free from nuisance, the plant may be centrally located, cost of collection minimized owing to the relative shortness of hauls, not necessary to maintain a separate collection, nor is there any necessity to keep refuse in separate cans.
W. F. Goodrich, Sanitary Expert, maintains that modern destructors are perfectly satisfactory and that there may be no fear of nuisance wherever they are located. He maintains that it should be the aim of officials to utilize the power produced for the best interests of the community.