Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
in the urban space, encouraged by hygienists, and made possible by the mecha-
nization of transportation, the use of tar or asphalt-based surfacing designed for the
new automotive traf
c, and the improvement to garbage collection, reduced some
of the fertilizer value of urban mud. At the same time, growing household con-
sumption resulted in increased amounts of waste being produced by urbanites as
well as the emergence of new types of waste. References to packaging, for example,
can be found as early as the beginning of the 20th century. Nevertheless, not all
cities abandoned the concept of recycling; on the contrary, many more cities that
did not yet recycle began to. In both cases, these initiatives aimed to factor in the
new industrial and agricultural constraints.
The
rst strategy was to look for land farther away and with greater yields for
agricultural market opportunities that had been previously available from market
gardening at the city gates. Marseilles, France
s second largest city with half a
million inhabitants at the end of the 19th century, was renowned for its insalubrity.
It was one of the last cities in France to suffer from a cholera epidemic and was
unable to dispose of its mud and garbage within its immediate outskirts; rather it
was piled up in two dumps, which worsened the city
'
'
s situation. A
rst project set
—
out to discharge refuse into the sea
a solution that was adopted by many coastal
cities throughout the world. Meanwhile, the Crau plain, located 60 or so kilometers
northwest of the city, was the focus of a signi
cant agricultural development
project. Its progress, however, was slowed by the scarcity and high cost of fertil-
izers. In the 1880s, a private company undertook the construction of a railway line
to dispose Marseille
s mud in this plain. The trains returned to the city loaded with
stones collected from the
'
elds, and these stones were used in public works. The
city made minimal
s
primary revenues came from selling the mud and because it received contributions
from the manufacturers of Marseilles who wished to improve the city
nancial contributions to the project because the company
'
s standards of
hygiene in order to boost economic development.
47
Around the same time, Paris
disposed of its mud in the north of France where a thriving beet cultivation required
low cost fertilizers
'
tability of the operation was possible only because
railway companies were obligated by the State to charge very low tariffs on this
type of transport. Similarly, the adoption of a combined sewerage system in many
cities led to the establishment of sewage
—
the pro
elds becoming located increasingly further
away from urban areas in order to bene
t from suf
cient surfaces and affordable land
prices. In the 1920s, the sewage
elds of Paris were located at several tens of
kilometers away from the city and the engineers even contemplated fertilizing the
region of Champagne s
che, approximately 120 km away.
48
Another solution was to
manufacture more reliable and effective fertilizers to compete with mineral and
industrial
è
fertilizers. Zymothermic fermentation, where optimal conditions of
47
vement journalier par chemin de fer et conduite dans la plaine de la Crau des immondices,
balayures et vidanges de la ville de Marseille. Observations sur le projet Montricher. 1886.
Marseille.
48
V
é
dry (
1992
).
Enl
è
