OF THE

Department of Health of the City of New York

All communications relating to the publications of the Department of Health should be addressed to the Commissioner of Health, 149 Centre St., N. Y.

Entered as second class matter May 7, 1913, at the post office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of August 24, 1912.

Vol. V.

NEW YORK, DECEMBER, 1915.

No. 12

THE BARREN ISLAND GARBAGE AND OFFAL DISPOSAL WORKS. By DR. JOSEPH A. SHEARS, Sanitary Expert.

The first consideration with all municipalities should be the safety and health of its citizens; and the next, to secure for them, at reasonable cost, those necessities secured through public grants to corporations. There is no more serious menace to the health of any community than its refuse, and this country, like others, has been trying for years to secure a better system for the disposal of this material, with but little success; and not only is the disposal of refuse often insanitary, but an enormous amount of money is spent annually for this purpose. By a comparison of the cost of refuse disposal per capita of American and foreign cities, it will be seen that New York City alone of our towns compares favorably with the foreign cities in the moderate cost of this work-generally this city is the equal, if not the superior, of any city in Europe in its system of collecting waste.

Both the incineration and reduction methods of refuse disposal have been on trial in this country for many years, and both methods, to some extent, have proven failures. This is not due to any defects in the methods themselves, but to their improper application and operation. To attempt the incineration of refuse at low temperatures is as absurd as to expect any method of garbage reduction to be a success without requiring the proper sorting of all wastes by the householder and the hauling to the reduction works of only such refuse as is capable of sanitary and economical reduction. It must be admitted that, irrespective of what method of reduction is adopted or how carefully the refuse may be sorted, reduction works have always been, and will continue to be, more or less of a nuisance to any neighborhood in which they are located. The character of the refuse delivered to the works for reduction—dead animals, kitchen and market garbage—must make it such, even with the most recent improved methods of destroying noxious odors.

When dead animals and kitchen garbage are rendered by private companies, as is now being done in most cities, the process is a source of constant complaint by citizens within the neighborhood of the plant. Paradoxically, I will state that we have, located in the densely-populated districts of Manhattan Borough, abattoirs which dispose of a much greater quantity of offal, equally as offensive as that which is rendered on Barren Island; that the rendering processes in these abattoirs are about the same as those in use on Barren Island; that there is very little cause for complaint from offensive odors from

these abattoirs; that in each of these the final disposition of uncondensible odors is effected through use of the tar pot. There can be no doubt as to the efficiency of this method of disposing of odors. In speaking of the efficiency of tar for masking odors, Osborn states:

"The methods used by the Products Manufacturing Company at the present time are such that all gases from the several condensers are finally passed through a new scrubber, which is much larger than the original one. The gases escaping from the scrubber are then passed over pine tar, from which the vapors intermingle with pine tar vapors, so that the odor is neutralized or disguised. From the tests made at the time of investigation, it was not proven that pine tar would deodorize the gases, although it will neutralize or disguise the local odors around the plant.

"At the point of discharge, the odor from the rendering apparatus is not noticeable when mixed with sufficient pine tar vapors, but after escaping to the atmosphere there will be a tendency to separate, so that in traveling any distance the original odor will prevail. This could not be determined at the time of inspection, but if recommendations in regard to inspections by the City are carried out, this could readily be determined. From the tests made and covered in the report of the Central Testing Laboratory, it requires a combination of treatments of the various gases according to the composition, and shows what methods were found to completely deodorize the gases."

Observations covering a period of years have been made of abattoirs where the above process was in use, and only on rare occasions such as a breakdown-has there been any cause for complaint. Were these offensive odors and tar vapors to separate, New York City would be continually suffering from the nuisance of offensive odors, as these plants are situated on the East and North Rivers. There is no doubt in my mind that garbage and offal rendering plants could be operated in densely-populated districts, without causing a nuisance. This would be most desirable from an economic standpoint, dispensing with long hauls and, from a health standpoint, garbage and offal could be removed more rapidly and be received at the plants in a better condition than at present.

OFFAL, CONDEMNED FOOD PRODUCTS AND HOTEL GARBAGE.

Products Manufacturing Company. This company owns and operates two of the three Barren Island plants, and is under contract with the Health Department to collect, remove and dispose of all dead animals in New York City. In addition to disposing of dead animals, all condemned canned goods, foods, meats, vegetables and hotel garbage are taken care of by this concern. Material unfit for rendering purposes is dumped at sea. Large animals-horses, etc., are collected in enclosed wagons properly equipped with windlasses. In the outlying boroughs, where long hauls are made, similarly equipped motor trucks are used. Small animals-cats, dogs, etc. are collected in enclosed wagons. These collections are deposited at the offal docks, of which there are two-one at the foot of West 39th Street, Manhattan, and one at the foot of Meeker Avenue, Brooklyn-and from these docks the material is shipped to Barren Island (near the mouth of the harbor). Some idea of the quantity of material disposed of by this concern can be had from the following:

New York Veal

-Plan

-Section X-X.

PLAN OF DRYERS, FLUES, BOILERS AND SCRUBBER-NEW YORK DISPOSAL CORPORATION PLANT-BARREN ISLAND CITY OF NEW YORK

The gradual yearly diminution in the number of horses received is continuous, and is due to the increasing use of motor-drawn vehicles. Besides horses, the materials handled are shown in the following figures supplied by the

This plant is also equipped for rendering fish, but, owing to the scarcity of material, this branch is not in continuous operation. The disposal of dead animals is by the rendering process, and of garbage by reduction. All material is delivered at the top floor of the establishment. Animals are skinned, and then eviscerated. The compact green bones are removed, sawed into proper sizes, dried and sold to the trade for ornamental purposes-buttons, knife handles, etc. The hair, tail and mane, is removed, and is sold for use in high-class upholstery and bedding. The muscles and viscera are digested in separate tanks, as it takes longer to cook viscera. There are twenty-three digestors at this plant; each digester has a capacity of seven tons. Ten of these digesters are used for rendering animals and thirteen for hotel garbage.

Animal Tanks. After the tanks are filled, steam at forty pounds is turned on and contents cooked for a period of about ten hours continuously. The gases are vented off through a four-inch vent line leading to the blow-off tank; they are trapped in the blow-off tank, and, by a six-inch line, carried to a barometric jet condenser, which discharges into a steel tank hot well, where the insoluble gases are trapped. The water and condensed vapors overflow through the line into the Bay. The insoluble gases trapped in the hot well are vented through a three-inch line, and are discharged in the ash pit underneath the coal grate of the boilers.

Garbage Tanks (hotel garbage). The garbage is cooked with live steam and the digesters vented by a four-inch line in the same way as the animal rendering tanks. Separate vent lines are run from the garbage digesters and animal tanks, and discharges into the common blow-off tank, while the same condenser and hot well is used for both.