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12
The increasing congestion of traffic in the main thoroughfares has rendered
difficult the daily removal of refuse from these streets. With a view to completing
the collection before the busy hours of the day the Council made arrangements
with the contractor in 1924 for the daily collection of house refuse from the main
thoroughfares shortly after 8 a.m., instead of shortly before 10 a.m. To enable
this to be done an Order was issued requiring occupiers of premises in the
thoroughfares concerned to place the refuse on the curb in small properly covered
metal receptacles between the hours of 6 and 8 a.m.
Six motor lorries, 3 trailers and 2 horse waggons are used in the collection and
removal of refuse from the Borough.
The quantity of refuse requiring removal shows a marked seasonal variation.
The average in the half-year, April to September, is about 332 tons per week
in contrast with an average of 462 tons per week in the half-year, October to
March. This quantity is equal to a daily average during the months, April to
September, of 1.27 ton per thousand of the population, and from October to
March, 1.78 ton per thousand of the population.
When the refuse is removed from the Borough it is taken first to the
contractor's depot where it is "forked" over for the extraction of paper, straw
and other combustible matter which is at once destroyed by burning in destructors.
In the course of the "forking" parts of the refuse are salvaged, e.g., tin cans
and other metal articles, bottles, glass, rags, bones, also bread and other food
material for sale to pig breeders. The remaining refuse, including cinders directly
from the household refuse, is loaded into barges and conveyed, at present, to dumps
on brickfields at Sittingbourne, for use in brick-making. The "forking" at
the contractor's yard is carried out immediately on the delivery of the refuse and
there is regular daily barging so that undue accumulations of Holborn refuse or
nuisances arising therefrom are avoided.
Occasional visits are paid to the contractor's depot to supervise the arrangements
for dealing with the refuse from the Borough.
An opportunity was taken during 1925 to visit the brickfields at Sittingbourne to inspect
the arrangements made by the contractor for the disposal of the Holborn house refuse.
The refuse is conveyed by barge from the contractor's wharf at Vauxhall to fields outside
Sittingbourne belonging to a large firm of brick-makers. The refuse is deposited on to
the land for subsequent use in connection with the industry carried on there. The site
of the brick-making fields is on the banks of the River Thames, a short distance from
Sittingbourne, the nearest residences being about one mile away, at the village of Conyer.
The site occupied for the tipping and sorting of the refuse and the brick-making
industry extends over about four acres. The refuse as brought from the barge, is stacked
into large heaps and remains for about three years before it is used. At the end of the
storage period the refuse is sifted through a sieve, 3/8" mesh. This sifting separates the fine
ash; the "hard core" is picked out leaving the breeze. The fine ash and breeze are used
in connection with the brick-making. A sufficient quantity for the effectual burning of the
bricks is mixed with the clay and the remainder is used for fuel either in kilns or clamps.
The "hard core" is used entirely for road making or the making up of the land of the
brickfields which, owing to its marshy nature, shows frequent subsidence. At the time of
inspection refuse was seen newly deposited and at varying periods of storage up to the
maximum of three years. A heap deposited three years previously, or thereabout, was in
course of sifting and sorting into three types, fine ash, breeze and "hard core." No
objectionable smell or other nuisance was observed from either the newly deposited refuse
or the storage heaps.