Garbage

Three weeks ago in the Supreme Court of the U. S., New York City won an important suit against New Jersey involving water from the Delaware River (TIME, May 18). Last week in the same court New Jersey won a suit no less important against New York City involving garbage in the Atlantic Ocean.

For years New York City's custom has been to load most of its garbage aboard scows, tow them about 40 mi. to sea, dump them. Wind and tide drift much of the refuse back to shore, spreading it along New Jersey's otherwise fine resort beaches, polluting the water, depreciating property values. New Jersey asked the Supreme Court to enjoin New York's garbage dumping as a public nuisance. Last week the Supreme Court ordered the city to stop its evil practice, but allowed it a "reasonable time" (yet to be fixed) in which to construct garbage incinerators. As of "no importance" the Supreme Court put aside New York's defense that the dumping took place beyond the three-mile limit and hence outside U. S. territorial jurisdiction.

A problem for every municipality is garbage disposal. New York put in its first incinerator in 1908. Other installations have been slow because citizens living near the proposed sites have fought them tooth & nail in the courts as veritable stink-pots. The Supreme Court's mandate spurred city officials to press on, regardless of local complaints, with a plan for 15 new incinerators to cost $17,375,000. During the War, New York considered plans whereby garbage could be reduced to grease and sold at a profit of $3,000,000 per year but the slump in grease prices ended that idea. Within the year a Boston man nibbled at New York's garbage output with a proposition to dry it out for fertilizer, but nothing came of that. Deep-sea dumping costs the city 23-c- per ton.

Few U. S. cities, according to a survey by Municipal Sanitation, derive any revenue from garbage disposal. A notable exception is Miami where the incinerator plants collect $5,000 per year from a hospital to supply it with steam for laundering and cooking. Many a small city helps dispose of its garbage by feeding it either to hogs of its own or by turning it over to private piggeries. Among hog-feeding towns Alhambra, Calif., Portland, Me., Lynn, Mass., Albany, N. Y. Grand Rapids, Lansing and Ann Arbor, Mich, truck their refuse to piggeries. The cost of incineration runs from 26-c- per ton at Florence, S. C. to $5 per ton at Providence, R. I., where the plant is a quarter-mile from City Hall.

Abroad garbage disposal is made profitable. The Rotterdam trolley system is operated by power generated at the incinerator plant. A large part of London's garbage will be taken by Henry Ford to burn in his English factories. Combustion on 1,000 tons per day will save him 50% on his fuel bills.

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