Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
of the arguments made by rag-and-bone men to practice their profession in the 19th
century) to salaried workers.
51
In North America, swine-feeding and other recycling
programs developed, specially during World War I.
52
Finally, as early as the 1870s, incineration was tested in England.
53
The
rst
British destructor was used in Nottingham in 1874, another in Manchester 2 years
later. The huge advantages of these destructors were their capacity to reduce the
volume and weight of waste to smoke, and the fact that they could be established in
urban areas, even highly populated urban areas, thanks to their (supposed) great
salubrity. Indeed, it brought processing closer to the site of collection and decreased
the cost of service compared to long-distance solutions that were often more costly
than initially anticipated and that gave rise to complaints from residents of the roads
that were being used by dumpers, and later, transport trucks. At
rst, incinerators
adopted in Great Britain and the United States were not used in France because of
the generally held opinion that they resulted in the loss of many useful materials,
converted into smoke. Nevertheless, energy recovery tests proved to be fruitful and
revealed that incineration provided a new opportunity for the recovery of waste
(because it is autocombustible). The most striking example is from Liverpool where
the incineration of 53 % of household waste, 174,090 tons in 1907, produced
9.2 million kWh that was used to power tramways. Ash (33 % of the incinerated
tonnage) was used for the manufacture of mortar, concrete structures and concrete
slabs for sidewalks.
54
From that time on, many sorting plants were equipped with
incinerators and only materials with high value were salvaged (in particular metals),
the rest was burned. Moreover, central and urban district heating offered a new
market venture for incinerators. In fact, this type of heating was developed in North
America as early as the 1870s and later in Germany in 1900. In Canada and the
United States, 300 cities were equipped with incinerators in 1932; 20 cities in
Germany by 1927.
55
Central heating, which according to a French advertisement of
the 1920s
allows comfort even if a woman works and is not home to maintain the
stove [translation]
“
,
56
was a sign of modernity.
”
7.4.3 The Abandonment of Waste
Despite the hope urban administrators had placed in these innovations, there was a
growing disinterest in recovery. There were several reasons for this. By the late
19th century, the usefulness of urban excreta became impaired, and as discussed
51
Joulot, op. cit., p. 82.
52
Melosi (
2005
), op. cit., p. 154, 163.
53
Melosi (
1988
).
54
Paris (
1909
).
55
Gallo (
1994
).
56
Quoted by Gallo, op. cit.
