Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
the 19th century to such a degree that some regions chartered
to
increase their radius of use around cities. In other areas, a fertilizer obtained from
drying night soil for a few years was produced
“
sewage trains
”
dry night soil (poudrette)
was sold in a 200 km radius around the city. Later, sulfate of ammonia was
manufactured, a compound obtained by the distillation of the liquid part of night
soil in a process developed in Paris during the 1830s and commercialized in
England.
32
This fertilizer was later made from by-products of coal distillation and
became one of the major suppliers of nitrogen at the turn of the 19th and 20th
centuries. Animal-seaweed (a mixture of brown algae and night soil) produced in
Marseilles, was transported by sea and commercialized as far as Italy. Large waste
removal companies were thus doubly pro
—
Paris
'
ted not only from
emptying cesspools, but also from commercializing fertilizers
table:
they pro
which explains
why they were opposed to future combined sewerage system projects. Furthermore,
cities often collected taxes on waste removal and these monies greatly contributed
to their annual revenues.
33
The collection of refuse and mud from streets also noticeably evolved. In many
cities, the sweeping, usually required of residents, was gradually replaced (where it
was not already the case) by the collection of tax and the organization of a public
service that could be ceded to private enterprises. Refuse heaps, made either by
urbanites or by employees of the sanitation department, were searched by rag-and-
bone men whose profession reached its apex between 1830 and 1870. Hygienists
considered scavenging a necessary evil: when practiced on the street it was harmful
to salubrity, but as a supplier to industry it was one of the factors of economic
growth. During this period, the revenues of rag-and-bone men generally increased
and wholesalers of rags and other salvaged materials acquired at times considerable
wealth. Material not salvaged by the rag-and-bone men
—
was picked up by
public or ceded waste removal services. Intended for agriculture, mud was often
sold by waste removal companies or services to farmers, like in Edinburgh, Lille,
Manchester, Paris
—
mud
—
such that in
several cities (including Paris) cleaning costs actually decreased in the
—
whereas it was given freely a century before
—
rst two-
thirds of the 19th century despite substantial increases in cleaning requirements and
the growing population.
34
This improvement
to the
management of waste was not equal among cities. Two factors were at stake in the
growth of recycling measures in big cities. On the one hand, recycling was cost
effective only if the supply was suf
—
admittedly relative in terms of the sanitary issue
—
cient, such that the population producing the
materials had to be large. On the other hand, these materials were most often
intended for agriculture use (and in particular for market garden production) and
local industries, which depended on a large market and thus also needed a large
population base. Elsewhere, the modalities in the management of urban excreta
32
Commission des engrais (
1865
1866
).
-
33
Barles (
2005
). op. cit.
34
Du Mesnil (
1884
).
