Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 7.3 Waste crushing plant near Paris, Pantin, early 20th century
ventilation and humidity are used to accelerate decomposition in dungheap pits, was
tested in Florence in 1912 and later in many cities. Using this method, fertilizer could
be obtained in 40 days or 9 cycles per year, later as quickly as 30 days and 12 cycles
per year, compared to 4 or 5 months for mud kept in heaps (2
3 cycles per year).
49
Another avenue, investigated both in France and the United States, was to
industrialize scavenging. The traditional scavenging site of rag-and-bone men,
streets (as in Paris) or dumps (as in New York), were moved into a specialized
establishment (Fig.
7.3
): a salubrious sorting plant where sorting operations could
be carried out in a more rational and ef
-
cient way. From the 1880s on, there was an
increasing number of these plants that aimed to offer manufacturers and farmers
products that had been carefully sorted and processed and were therefore com-
petitive. In 1923, a sorting plant built in Nice (in the South of France), a city that
had once discarded its waste into the sea,
50
produced fertilizers and separately
salvaged papers, cartons, rags (sorted by type), corks, bones, various scrap metals,
tin scrap, other metals, bread and other food remains. Processes were further
improved with the use of magnets for the recovery of ferrous metal and belt con-
veyors for the transport of waste past the workers. Each product had its specialized
collector and rag-and-bone men went from being self-employed (freedom was one
49
Joulot (
1946
), see: Giuntini, op. cit., pp. 65
67, 70
71.
-
-
50
Courmont et al. (
1932
).
