Ear on Chicago; Tomorrow's Leftovers: Bureau of Sanitation

We are standing in an alley between Wavelin and Warwick, long and lockwood on Chicago's north side. The sounds you heard were those of refuse cans being emptied by regular crews of the Sanitation Department. Today we'll cover the story of refuse disposal by the Sanitation Department of the City of Chicago. With reporter Hugh Hale is Bill Hart, Assistant Superintendent of Sanitation. This huge truck here Bill is one of many that you use for refuse pickup in Chicago. Is that right? That's right. At the present time we've got about 360 tour of these trucks working each day. And you work the whole city, of course. That's right, the whole city of Chicago. Now what about this particular truck? How many stops would it make in an alley bill and about how much of a territory would it cover in a day? Well in a day I'd say that this truck in this territory will cover about eight complete blocks. About eight blocks? Yeah. So that tomorrow it'll go at eight different blocks and so on. That's correct. And so you cover the whole territory in a week. And seven days, that's right. We only work five days but we work on a seven day basis a weekly schedule. Now for example, let's stop you're making right now. How often would you make this once a week? Once a week. I see.

Now that's the side of that diesel engine which is crushing there, the refuge which is already in the truck. The giant jaw of that truck bites down into the refuge. And now as it opens up you can see that it's packed pretty tightly in there. A great huge bond of refuge. Now the boys are coming in with some more cans full of garbage. You can hear it. Now Bill there are a couple of questions I'd like to ask as we come out here in the alley about the operation that just took place. All right you, I'd like you to meet our superintendent of the 38th ward. Ali Purcell. Ali, this is you, Hill. All right. All right. Listen, there's a couple of questions I'd like to ask you about the operation here. Now first of all the boys took the cans from this location over here by the garage. And dumped them in and that looked like a fairly simple thing. But then they had to come over here and get into this concrete bunker or

whatever you call it. Now that's rather difficult to get in there with a scoop shovel and get that out of there isn't it? Yes it is you. Especially a box of this type with such a small opening. It's a long tedious, laborious operation to take this garbage out of there. Do you have many of those concrete things in this neighborhood? In this particular area there are quite a few concrete boxes. Why is that, Ali? I mean why don't they have cans? Well it's, it's hand me down from the past. They no longer allow the people to install concrete boxes. But this is one of the already installed. We thought it would be too much of a handicap on the people to force them to replace these with other containers. So we are allowing the old containers to stay in there but no more are allowed to be installed. Now Ali, what about this pile of refuse that was stacked up here along the telephone pole right up next to the building? It was about four or five feet away from the concrete container. Do you allow them to stack it in the

alleyway that way? No, technically that's a violation of the sanitation code. All refuse is supposed to be placed in a container. But at this time of the year where the output is a little heavier than the ordinary season of the year where people do not have enough containers to take care of the refuse and pile up some of it in the alley. Such as leaves that they rake up in the yard and attic cleanings and so forth. Well you have to go along with them a little bit on that. That's right, we cooperate with the public and it's a little bit of give and take in this business. Now Ali, I was talking all through our interviews there a little while ago about some of the conditions that your boys have to work under. Snow and ice in the wintertime and the heat in the summertime. And this particular crew here seems to be doing an awfully good job this morning. These men are typical of the crews in the 38th ward. What's your name, Ali? Well, it's Clifton Floyd, Jerry Ezbizito and Bob Boyd. They've been here for years and

they've been doing a good job and they're part of the neighborhood organization. It's part of the neighborhood itself. The people all recognize them and familiar with these fellows and they take pride in keeping their district up just the same as the officials. Ali, thank you very much for talking to us and I wanted to ask you one other question. We noticed that this is an alley operation. Do you have other operations too? Yes, we do. Certain areas of this ward have no alleys and the refuse is removed from the curb. The people bring out the cans to the curb and pick it up with the curb on a certain day of the week at a certain hour. All right, thanks a million Ali. Now Bill, we'll get back to you. I guess we better get on to that curb route operation, right? Okay, let's go. We've come now to the curb

operation which is along, well, it's just west of Long Avenue. What's the name of this street? On sunny side. Now right out here in front of one of the homes is one, two, three huge garbage cans and three baskets filled with refuge. Now the boys are moving right into operation. They've picked up two or three cans already and now the baskets are going in. So this is all part of the operation of the sanitation department and of course this is one of the most important things in city government as everybody knows. Bill, it's true I guess that the garbage department or the sanitation department gets closer to the people in any other part of the city operation, doesn't it? Yes, you know, I can't think of any department at all that's closer to the people than we are. They really know when you're working positively and we find a public very nice, they're cooperative and we get along pretty well with them. Now Bill, I see that the truck is being clamped down again and the big jaws coming down and pitching in that refuge and throwing it inside the truck looks to me like it's about filled. Now what happens to it when it's filled? Well, when this truck is filled we will

know that rammed that you see an operation there will automatically stop the operational cease and then we know that the truck is filled. From there we go to our new incinerator plant at Fidel Avenue you and we dispose of the load there. All right, swell it to go out there and take a look at that operation. We are standing now in the incinerator building. We're standing just a few feet away from the scale operation. They weigh the refuses as it comes in in the truck. Now a truck is pulling in right now Bill so suppose you and I go into the office and see just what the operation is. The truck is pulling up onto the scale right now and we'll see what they're going to do. Now we walk just a few feet away from where we were standing into the scale room. They have in front of us here a huge round scale and a man just punched the time of arrival of this truck. Now he's punching the number of the truck. What was the number of that truck? 699. All right now he operated the scale put the scale into operation and it moved

up and now balances it around the figure which is 900. At which point? 7 ,900. At which point he'll punch a button. There's the button. You probably heard it engage. 786. What was it? 7 ,860 pounds. All right 7 ,860 pounds. Now they keep that record looks like it's in triplicate on a record sheet and another man is going to write down here the name of the truck driver. And the scale goes back up to zero and they're ready now for another operation. Now Bill first of all that weight that he indicated I assume is the weight of the refuse and not including the truck. That's right you he has a list of the tear weight of all these trucks as they come in. So the weight that you see there is the net weight of the load. Now Bill let's get into the reason why you weigh the refuse. What about that? Well excuse me you

for all these details I'm going to introduce you to our plant superintendent Mel Null. Mel this is you Hill. Hello Mel nice to know you. Nice to know you. Now we were asking Bill about why they weigh the refuse. What do you do that for? Well the purpose of weighing the refuse is so that we will be able to have an accurate check of the amount of material that goes to our furnaces. And with the knowing the way of the refuse and the material that comes out and what we call the residue, why we have a very good idea of how much and how efficient our furnaces are burning. Now this is a very big building Mel and the trucks as they pull off the scale, I notice that there is either a farmer or one of the boys working out here tells the driver where to go. How does that operation work? Well the truck is brought in on what we call an incinerator plant terminology the tipping floor. And there is a laborer who guides the truck over to the point where it is to be dumped or tipped in the pit. The pit which you see in front of us

is about 196 feet long, 23 feet wide and 22 feet deep. And it holds approximately 4800 cubic yards. Why don't we go out there Mel and take a look at that operation. I just noticed that the truck that we were describing earlier in the operation, the truck that the same truck that picked up the refuse from the cans in the alley and from the cans along the curb has just arrived. We might take a weighing operation on that truck. Do you want to do that? Let's take a look at it. What was the number of that truck? 619. 619, alright that's our truck the one we've been following all morning. Truck has now been weighed. Now that sound you heard was the engaging of the scale and the indicator. We're going to see how much our truck weighed or how much the refuse

weighed. We're going to take it again. There wasn't a clear indication there. Scale is just about stopped and to be ready to punch that button in just a second. 983 .0 983 .0, 9830 pounds is what the refuse weighed in that truck. What's the size of that truck out there Mel? 20 cubic yard truck. 900 or 9000 pounds is probably about an average weight, is that right? It's weighing just a little heavier than average, it's a present time. Alright, now once again let's go out here and take a look and see what happens after that truck is weighed. Now the truck is pulling off of the scales. And it will be moving over

into that great big pit in just a moment. The truck is now pulling up to the pit. First of all it pulls forward. It's guided by one of the laborers here on the incinerator plant. And then it will back up into place. Now Mel what will happen once it gets backed up there and ready to dump? Well the first of all the laborer checks the truck through a side opening to make sure that the vehicle is properly loaded. And then he directs it back to the pit location where there is an available space to dump the material in the collection truck. Now there are 9000 pounds of refuse about how long will it take him to dump that load? A weld possibly about a minute and a half to two minutes to completely empty out his vehicle. We can hear that diesel engine, that diesel motor working right now. And they're checking the load and in just a minute they're going to open up the back end of the truck and dump this particular load that we've been following this morning.

Now while they're doing that Mel we might talk just a little bit about what happens to this refuse once it's dumped in that big pit down there. After the refuse is dumped in the pit there are three overhead bridge cranes with three yard buckets attached to them. The bucket comes down on the pit and makes a grab of the material and it's then hoisted up from the pit to what we call the charging floor. That means it's where it's fired, it's where it's burned. Now at the charging floor is so called the charging floor because the material is placed into hoppers directly over the furnace. And from these hoppers where it's charged or dropped into the furnaces for burning. Now Bill after the garbage is burned what happens then you have what you call residue just a second before you answer that question. And I might explain that the truck number 519 that we were talking about earlier is now dumping its load into the great huge pit. It's a

huge dump truck to back open up and now the better the truck is dumping up and now comes that crane that Bell mentioned and is picking up the garbage, lifting it high up over that wall. And we'll be back over there in that charged area. Is that what you call it? The charging floor. Now why don't we go on with that finish our discussion about what happens to it over there. Once we have it burned it gets into what you call residue, is that right? That's correct. That's the end point of the burning. It's the unburned cams and inert material and the ashes from the combustible material that is burned. Well I see that our truck is just about finished it's dumping operations and it's dumped all the refuse into that big pit. So suppose you tell me what happens now. From the pit a large bucket comes down from an overhead bridge crane. It takes a big bite of the material that was just dumped in the pit and brings it up about 40

feet to what we call the charging floor. Or it is placed in charging hoppers in preparation to being placed in the furnace for burning. Now we are in the fire room we're standing right next to the furnaces. Right in front of us is one of the huge incinerator furnaces and it's blazing away. Now it's amazing I think for someone like myself Mel to come down and see just how hot and how quickly this refuse burns. It seemed to me at first that it was going to be difficult to burn it without adding some kind of fuel but you actually don't have any fuel. You burn the refuse just sort of strike a match to it let it go don't you? That is correct you. So we are now on what we call a stalking floor and it's so call that because the fireman has to stoke the furnaces here or with the help of mechanically operated grates the stalking constantly

exposes on burned surfaces to the air coming in the furnaces so combustion will take place. As you know burning is a surface phenomena and so in order to get good combustion the on burned surfaces have to be exposed constantly. Now what about the heat how hot does it get inside of those furnaces? The furnaces the furnace temperatures have gone as high as 2000 degrees we try to operate the furnaces between temperatures of about 1300 degrees and 1600 degrees. Now does everything burn in that kind of temperature what about glass for example? And I know temperatures you glass becomes a molten mass 10 cans the 10 is oxidized from the paper burn and as much as 15 to 25 % of the actual steel in the can is also oxidized. So that you have the can much

lighter after it comes out that when it went in that is correct you it's much lighter than when it went in the furnace. Well we're standing as I said just a few feet away from the furnace and you can feel the heat it isn't extremely warm but at least you can feel it and looking in through that small window you can see that the fire is really blazing away. You can see everything from old shoes to bottles to tin cans to big huge drums just everything inside of there. Now one thing I noticed a moment ago was a red light flashing up there meld has had any significance. That red light that's flashing indicates that the charge has been dropped from the charging hoppers into the furnace and that the charging gate cannot be closed by the firemen. All right now we get this refuse burned what happens to what's left there is bound to be something left. There's a residue left I percentage of residue is left because of the fact that we have a lot of cans

and inert material in the original refuse coming in the plant. And the residue also consists of a certain portion of ash that comes from the burning of papers and garbage. Now what happens to that residue? The residue is taken out through the ash hoppers and then to vehicles trailers are large trucks and then transferred out to a hundred desert and dirty where it is dumped into our existing dump at that location. Why don't we take a look at that operation with the residue and where would we have to go to see that? We have to go to a floor approximately 15 feet below this level. All right. Call the ash pit run. Right, let's go down there mel. Down in the floor of the incinerator plant is the ash pit room that's where we've come the ash pit run. That's where we've come

now. So mel I can describe the obvious here and it's just exactly what your terminology describes it as a run. Apparently the trucks come in and the trailers from back here in the open end of the building down this runway here and underneath these hoppers. Is that right? That's correct you. The trucks come in from the generally from the east and run through the ash pit run to the west and they're parked under the ash pit hoppers. What's your just honor? The greats in the furnace. When the material in the furnace is burned it is dumped or stoked down into these ash pit hoppers. And the word is collected and when they become full the ash pit gates are open and the ashes are dropped down to these trucks which are just below them and the ash pit run. Now these trucks and trailers are moved out to a hundred and third and dirty. That's correct you. After

the trailer and truck or truck is filled with residue and is then transported out to a hundred and third and dirty for dumping. Now we might say to people who don't live in Chicago but a hundred and third and dirty is way out on the south side and is right next to Lake Coyote Met. So that's where you have the city dump, isn't that right? That's correct you. All right now before we leave the operation here Mel I'd like to ask you if this incinerator handles all of the refuse in the city of Chicago. And all this incinerator will only handle about 20 % of the refuse in the city of Chicago. We have other means of disposal. Some of the south side refuse is taken directly out by the collection trucks to a hundred and third and dirty for dumping. Now on the north side the rest of the north side refuse is taken into what we call a transfer station right next to this incinerator plant. And the collection trucks

are run up on a ramp and then dumped into a trailer which is just below the ramp. And the trailer is then run out with four or five collection truck loads to a hundred and third and dirty for dumping. In addition to this we have two railroad transfer stations, one located at 40th in Ashland and one on East South Water Street. The refuse is brought to these stations and dumped into railroad cars and then transferred to our disposal site for dumping. Now before we go I also want to ask you Mel about air pollution. Now as I drove up it was amazing to see despite the fact that you have a great deal of burning in this incinerator we saw that there was no smoke. Now how do you get around this? The reason for this you is that the furnaces are very well designed. They have been designed in such a matter as to eliminate a great deal of particular matter from the gases

that come off the burning material. Also the stacks are 255 feet above grade level and with this height and with the velocity of the gases coming out of the stack and their temperature it tends to eliminate any obnoxious stack gases or particular matter from falling out of the gases emitted from the stack. What keeps things pretty clean around here doesn't it? Yes it's a great help to incinerator operation if you can have your stack discharges in such a way that they will not commit a nuisance to the surrounding area. Mel we want to thank you very much for telling us about the incinerator operation here. We also want to thank Bill Hart for accompanying us on our tour of the city refuse pickup. It's been an interesting operation indeed. And now we'll have

some closing remarks from street commissioner Lloyd M. Johnson. You I want to thank you for the time you spent in looking over our refuse collection and disposal operation. I think it should be of great interest to the public. However I think it advisable that you have some idea of how stupendous this operation is. We give daily service once a week to all sections of the city in some sections where the population is more dense we service them twice a week. This requires the service services of about 2 ,800 men and approximately 400 refuse collection vehicles. In addition to the refuse collection the Bureau of sanitation handles street cleaning snow and ice removal weed control keeping the litter picked up from the streets. And if you've noticed lately we've placed several thousand in fact over 10 ,000 baskets around in the various corners that we hope the people will use. This not only will make our

city a better place and cleaner place to live in but will it makes it easier for everyone to dispose of their newspapers. Each day we collect 17 ,000 cubic yards of refuse and we service 750 ,000 living units in the city. Now we come to the disposal of refuse and we mentioned of the new incinerator which went into operation a few weeks ago at Madilla Avenue near Ashland. The city has a program for completely disposing of all their refuse by incineration and the next incinerator we hope will be built within the next year in operation say in 18 months. This unit will be installed at the south side and the site of the present refuse disposal dump. This program is to cost approximately $25 million and will take approximately five years to complete. Now you

I would like to get back a little to the private house where we give service and refuse collection. The householder can aid the city in doing their operation and thereby save themselves some money. If they provide themselves with a proper refuse container it makes it cheaper and easier for us to handle this refuse. The old fashioned cement concrete box that you see so much in certain sections of the city is illegal in the city of Chicago. Also we have permitted the use of a 55 gallon drum. The 55 gallon drum is not too objectionable if it has a tight fitting cover but we would like to have all the citizens use the standard refuse container which is a 32 gallon can made of an impervious material with a tight fitting cover. This legal can has several advantages to it. One man can handle it easily.

It can be dumped into the refuse collection vehicle quickly and without any loss of time on manpower or from the equipment. Now you I would like to talk a little something about the regularity of our collection service. I think all citizens of Chicago have noted recently that our service has been most regular. This service was greatly stepped out last July when through the efforts of Mayor Daley the city was given more funds by the state legislature and it made it possible for this department to increase the service given on refuse collection and street cleaning. What else could the public do? I would like to make a little mention here Hugh of the mayor's committee for a cleaner Chicago. Shortly after he was inaugurated into office he organized a cleanup committee. This committee consists of leading leaders in business industry, labor, church movements and every conceivable avenue of life.

They are organized to get the people to cooperate with the city so that we can give better service at less cost. Any of you in the radio audience who are interested joining this crusade for a cleaner city can join and help. In many ways the first and most important way is to clean up around your own home and around your own on the public property around your premises. I would like to emphasize this that through our combined efforts that is the city and the public we can make Chicago the cleanest city in the United States if not the world.