A PRACTICAL TREATISE ON THE SCAVENGING AND CLEANSING OF CITIES AND TOWNS.
By H. PERCY BOULNOIS, M. Inst. C. E.,
Member (by Exam.) of the Sanitary Institute
of Great Britain,
City Surveyor of Exeter.
Some portions of the following pages have already appeared in the monthly numbers of the Sanitary Engineer, and the complete work is now published with a view to assist Surveyors of Towns and others who are directly engaged in providing that house dustbins shall be regularly cleared, and streets kept clean; and also in the hope that it may be the means of drawing some public attention to the question, thus showing the householder something of what is being done for his welfare by Sanitary Authorities, and how each individual may assist in the good work, instead of, as is now frequently the case, inadvertently or purposely retarding the execution of some very necessary though unostentatious sanitary measures. I am not aware that any book, or even pamphlet, has yet been written on this subject, and I venture to believe that in these pages there may be found something to interest all readers.
H. P. B.
Exeter, May, 1881.
The word "Scavenging," or "Scavengering," as it is frequently styled, is a very comprehensive term, as it includes that of house scavenging or the removal of house refuse, and also that of street scavenging, or the sweeping and cleansing of streets, and the carting away of all such materials removed from their surface. In dealing with this subject it will be necessary to consider the following heads, viz.:—(1) What is house refuse, (2) How and in what manner shall it be temporarily stored pending the visit of the Scavenger, (3) What are the best methods for its collection, (4) In what manner shall it be eventually disposed of, and (5) the cost of the whole work; (6) Which are the best methods for sweeping and cleansing streets, (7) Whether machinery is more economical than hand labour, (8) The extra work involved by the ill construction of streets and the materials of which they are formed, (9) Whether private courts and alleys not repairable by the Sanitary Authority should be swept and cleansed by them, (10) The ultimate disposal of excessive accumulations of mud, (11) The removal and disposal of snow, (12) The watering of streets, and (13) The cost of all such work.
The Public Health Act of 1875 contains several clauses bearing on the subject of scavenging and the cleansing of streets, and sec. 42, part III., enacts as follows:—
"Every local authority may, and when required by order of the Local Government Board shall, themselves undertake or contract for—
"The removal of house refuse from premises;
"The cleansing of earth closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools; either for the whole or any part of their district.
"Moreover, every urban authority and rural authority invested by the Local Government Board with the requisite powers may, and when required by order of the said Board shall, themselves undertake or contract for the proper watering of streets for the whole or any part of their district.
"All matters collected by the local authority or contractor in pursuance of this section may be sold or otherwise disposed of, and any profits thus made by an urban authority shall be carried to the account of the fund or rate applicable by them for the general purposes of this Act; and any profits thus made by a rural authority in respect of any contributory place shall be carried to the account of the fund or rate out of which expenses incurred under this section by that authority in such contributory place are defrayed.
"If any person removes or obstructs the local authority or contractor in removing any matters by this section authorised to be removed by the local authority he shall for each offence be liable to a penalty not exceeding five pounds: provided that the occupier of a house within the district shall not be liable to such penalty in respect of any such matters which are produced on his own premises and are intended to be removed for sale or for his own use and are in the meantime kept so as not to be a nuisance."
Section 45 also enacts that "any urban authority may, if they see fit, provide in proper and convenient situations receptacles for the temporary deposit and collection of dust, ashes, and rubbish; they may also provide fit buildings and places for the deposit of any matters collected by them in pursuance of this part of this Act."
The Act also gives the power to local authorities to make bye-laws with respect to the cleansing of footpaths and pavements, the removal of house refuse and the cleansing of earth closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools, and the prevention of nuisances arising from snow, filth, dust, ashes, and refuse.
It will thus be seen that the Legislature find it necessary to frame laws for the proper execution of scavenging by every local authority, and we shall see in the following chapters how further clauses in the Public Health Act, as well as in many private Improvement Acts and also in Bye-laws, detail the manner in which this work ought to be properly carried out. I shall further endeavour to show where errors in the working now exist, and give some suggestions that would, in my opinion, be, if carried out, improvements upon the present systems.
Now the first question that presents itself to us is: what is house refuse? and how is it to be defined? for unless this point is satisfactorily settled, great onus and expense will be put on the local authority if they are to be compelled to remove all trade, garden, and other refuse in addition to what may be legally entitled house refuse.
Section 4, part I., Public Health Act, 1875, contains the following definition of the word house: "House" includes schools, also factories and other buildings in which more than twenty persons are employed at one time. But all that is apparently said in reference to the definition of refuse is to be found in "Glenn's Public Health Act," 1875, where in a foot note to section 44, part III. of the before named Act, is the negative argument "what is not refuse:" and describes one or two cases in which it was held that certain ashes from furnaces, etc., were to be designated as "trade refuse," and further says "that the intention of the Act was that only the rubbish arising from the domestic use of houses should be removed."
On reference, however, to some local Improvement Acts, it appears that the definition is given more in detail, for we find that house refuse is there described as "all dirt, dust, dung, offal, cinders, ashes, rubbish, filth, and soil."
We may thus, we imagine, be fairly content with these definitions, and may assume that all house refuse legally so designated, and which it is the duty of the scavenger to remove, is really so removed by the direction of the local authority without dispute, but that the following articles, which frequently find their way into a domestic dustbin, are not in the strict terms of the Act expected to be removed by the scavenger, viz., (1) plaster from walls and brick bats, (2) large quantities of broken bottles and flower pots, (3) clinkers and ashes from foundries and greenhouses, (4) wall papers torn from the rooms of a house, (5) scrap tin (but not old tins which have contained tinned meats and which, although very objectionable and bulky, may be fairly assumed to be house refuse), and (6) all garden refuse such as grass cuttings, dead leaves, and the loppings from trees and shrubs. The Bromley Local Board issue a card on which is printed, amongst other information with reference to the contract for the removal of house refuse, the following:—"It is hoped that householders will as far as possible facilitate the systematic removal of refuse by providing suitable dustbins, and directing their servants that ordinary house refuse only shall be deposited in such receptacles. The following are some of the items of refuse which the contractors are bound to remove, viz.:—cinder ashes, potatoe peelings, cabbage leaves, and kitchen refuse generally. But the contractors are not required to remove the refuse of any trade, manufacture, or business, or of any building materials or any garden cuttings or sweepings." Some valuable statistics have recently been prepared by me from answers obtained from upwards of ninety of the principal cities, and towns in England, in reply to a series of questions which I addressed to the local surveyors on the subject of scavenging, and on referring to these statistics it is found that out of these ninety towns, the authorities of only thirteen of them direct the removal of both trade and garden refuse without any special extra payment being made by the householder, but that this is only done when these materials are placed in the ordinary dustbin or ashpit attached to a house. Several towns, however, it appears remove such materials on special payments being made of sums varying from 1s. 6d. to 3s. per load.
Disputes frequently arise between the men employed in scavenging and the householder on these vexed questions as to the difference between house, trade, or garden refuse, a dispute often raised by the scavengers themselves, in the hope of obtaining a gratuity or reward for the clearance of a dustbin which no doubt, legally, they are perfectly justified in refusing to empty, and in order to lessen the chance of such disputes and to attempt to settle this question the following suggestions may be of value.
It would no doubt be vexatious if any sanitary authority were to absolutely refuse to remove the "garden" refuse from those houses to which a small flower garden was attached, whilst it would on the contrary be an unfair tax upon the general community if the refuse of large gardens was removed without payment. A good rule would therefore be to remove only such garden refuse as was contained in the ordinary dustbin or ashpit attached to a house, and that as the removal of any kind of trade refuse would no doubt lead to abuses if done gratuitously by the sanitary authority, that this material should only be removed on payment of some sum, which should be previously fixed by the Local Authority, and each case should be reported to the officer superintending the work before it was removed.
There are, of course, in addition to the ordinary house refuse the waste materials from the surface of the streets, and from markets and slaughter-houses, which have to be collected and disposed of by the Local Authority, but these materials should be collected in a special manner, independently of the ordinary removal of the house refuse.
The next question that we have to consider, having thus far discussed the subject of "what is house refuse," is the important one of the manner and place in which it shall be temporarily stored pending the visit of the scavenger. I will begin as I did in the former case by turning to the law on the subject, and find out if it can help us.
Section 40, part III., of the Public Health Act of 1875 enacts that: "Every local authority shall provide that all drains, water-closets, earth-closets, privies, ashpits, and cesspools within their district be constructed and kept so as not to be a nuisance or injurious to health."
And section 35 of the above Act states, "It shall not be lawful newly to erect any house or to rebuild any house pulled down to or below the ground floor without a sufficient water-closet, earth-closet, or privy, and an ashpit furnished with proper doors and coverings. Any person who causes any house to be erected or rebuilt in contravention of this enactment shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds."
The Act also gives power to local authorities to enforce provision of ashpit accommodation for houses where such accommodation does not already exist, and to frame bye-laws with respect to ashpits.
In the year 1877 the Local Government Board issued a series of model bye-laws for the use of sanitary authorities, and No. IV. of this series, which is upon "New Streets and Buildings," contains the following six lengthy clauses, regulating the position of an ashpit with reference to a dwelling-house or public-building, or to any water supply, and for the purpose of removing its contents without carrying them through any dwelling-house, &c.:—
"80. Every person who shall construct an ashpit in connection with a building shall construct such ashpit at a distance of six feet at the least from a dwelling-house or public building, or any building in which any person may be, or may be intended to be employed in any manufacture, trade, or business.
"81. A person who shall construct an ashpit in connexion with a building shall not construct such ashpit within the distance of __ feet from any water supplied for use, or used or likely to be used by man for drinking or domestic purposes, or for manufacturing drinks for the use of man, or otherwise in such a position as to endanger the pollution of any such water.