Institute of Public Cleansing Conference, Torquay
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Random Tipping Criticized
No Excuse for Dirty Vehicles: Fire Hazards: Dutch Experience in Public Cleansing: Design of Refuse Collectors
NCONTROLLED tipping was criticized by Mr. Eric Bell, cleansing superintendent of Walthamstow, when he was installed as president of the Institute of Public Cleansing at the opening session on Tuesday of the 59th annual conference in Torquay.
In his presidential address he said that it was a matter of great concern that there were still some local authorities who were content to allow crude refuse tipping to continue to deface the countryside. It might sometimes cost a little less than controlled tipping, but could that be considered a valid reason for perpetuating an archaic method of refuse disposal which had long since been condemned as ugly and insanitary?
Staff Problems
Mr. Bell referred to the staff difficulties brought about by the financial rewards of industry, which had long attracted many who would have entered local-government service had they been able to foresee any prospect of adequate remuneration and commensurate responsibility after training. Industry had set out to attract the youngster at the commencement of his career, satisfied that whatever it cost to train him, it would be returned a hundredfold in the future. 'Before the last war local government could well claim to be in the forefront of good employers, but this position was now
lost, it was necessary, therefore, to face the truth and acknowledge that staff shortages today were the logical outcome of the shortsighted policy which had been operated over the past few years.
Public representatives, he implied, must be prepared to stand up to industry and compete with it on equal terms for the services of the younger generation.
Bulkier Refuse
Changes in living conditions were resulting in more bulky refuse, which was formerly burned on the domestic fire, finding its way into the dustbin, but in few instances had serious thought been given to the problems that this would create in public cleansing. Controlled tipping and composting depended upon rapid disintegration of the refuse, but a large proportion of the new materials now coming into use would not readily disintegrate by bacteriological action, neither were they reducible by fire. Neither controlled tipping nor incineration would necessarily provide a satisfactory method of disposal. Mr. Bell commented that local authorities were content to pay 11,000 and over for special vehicles, and then allow them to be used continually without the slightest attempt being made to keep them clean and smart. Admittedly. B10
they were employed upon dusty and dirty work, but there was no excuse for not having them washed every night and kept smartly painted.
Highways had been built to expedite traffic, but no consideration had been given to simplifying the task of keeping them clean. A great drawback to successful mechanical cleansing was the serious lack of garage accommodation, which compelled many car owners to park their cars in the street.
Apart from the president's address, four papers were read at the conference. On Tuesday afternoon Mr. G. Huffels, director of cleansing and transport Nijmegen, presented a paper, "Modern Practice of the Cleansing Service in the Netherlands." Yesterday morning Mr. C. V. Rawnsley, cleansing and transport superintendent, Thurrock Urban District Council, read a paper, "The Fire Hazard in the Public Cleansing Service," and Mr. J. Skitt, cleansing superintendent of Coventry, read a paper "Tools for the Job." Today, Mr. H. I. Dive, director of the Metropolitan Boroughs (Organization and Methods) Committee, is delivering a paper, "Some Aspects of 0. and M., with Particular Reference to Public Cleansing."
Danger of Refuse Fires
E IRES on refuse tips, said Mr. Rawnsley, might arise from a variety of causes, but perhaps the most frequent was the deliberate lighting of paper and other similar combustible material on the tip face by persons who found their way, unobserved, on to the site, during evenings or at week-ends. Such fires were not serious, but if they were allowed to become established they might become deep-seated.
Ignition might, on the other hand, be caused by the deposit of hot ashes along with other refuse when, given a suitable wind and contact with combustible material, a vigorous fire might be started. The introduction of all-nightburning fires in houses had increased the danger from this source.
In general, attention to adequate covering of refuse on tips would much' reduce the fire hazard by reason of the restriction, if not exclusion, of the supply of oxygen, thus retarding the rate of oxidation of carbonaceous material.
Although precautions might be. taken by loaders to avoid discharging hot ash from refuse bins into a collecting vehicle, there was always a possibility that this might occur, giving rise under favourable conditions to a fire in the vehicle's load. In the case of side-loading or barrier-type vehicles, such outbreaks were readily detected, but in compressor machines, unless the hot ash was detected when deposited into the loading hopper, the emergence of smoke from the vehicle body might be the first indication that fire existed. By that time the scat of the fire was inaccessible.
In all cases of this kind, the load ought to be taken immediately to the 'disposal point and discharged in isolation, where the fire could be completely extinguished.
Carelessness in Works Fires in workshops could quite frequently be traced to the incorrect use of equipment or a complete disregard of. common-sense precautions, such as the brazing, welding or cutting of tanks which had contained petrol or other inflammable liquid without first ensuring that no trace of the liquid or vapour remained.
Familiarity with the use of oxy-acetylene welding equipment might cause contempt in the observance of safety rules. Such equipment should be handled with the care it deserved and demanded, if the danger of backfire or flash-back was to be eliminated.
The fitting of master switches to all vehicles, so that the battery might be disconnected quickly in the event of a short circuit or while standing overnight, was to be recommended.
Holland Uses Foreand-aft Tippers
HUFFELS said .that in almost IV' every town and village in the Netherlands, domestic re fuse was collected by means of standard dustbins and fore-and-aft-tipping refuse collectors provided with a dustless loading device at the rear. This type of refuse collector bad advantages which justified its being used in the Netherlands on a large scale. By comparison with vehicles with a compressing device, it appeared that the tare weight of fore-and-aft tippers was much less, thus giving a more favourable loading capacity.
Chassis were of different makes and included D.A.F., Bedford, Seddon, and American Ford and Chevrolet.
Vehicles were usually powered by oil engines, whilst the superstructure consisted mainly of a receptacle, a loading device and a storage box for bulky refuse. A hinged shutter might be fitted between the body and the loading device, providing in this way a separate loading space. Part of the vehicle wasdrum-shaped and could pivot, so that the loader was raised and the refuse fell to the front.
Fore-and-aft tipping was carried out hydraulically. The bin lift was much in use. A hinged panel was fitted on the upper side of the loader, and the hip lift and panel were connected by rods. Opening and closing were effected • automatically by the bin lift.
• . Several cleansing departments were loading refuse collectors on a task basis.
• As soon as the bins were emptied in a certain section, the workmen were allowed to go home. The advantage of this method was a staff economy of 20 to 40 per cent., whilst the number of dustbins emptied per man each hour could reach an average of 100, instead of the usual 70.
Workshop staff worked normal hours, and in this way it was possible to carry out small repairs.' as the 'refuse collectors returned early. By contrast, wear and tear of rolIihg stock were cumulative, and greater reserves were necessary. In The Hague rough handling of vehicles was minimized successfully by punishing those responsible.
In large towns, sweeper-collectors could no longer be used, even during the night, because of parked cars. Sweeper collectors were employed mainly as a supplementary aid to hand sweeping. There were three principal types in use—Geesink, Nctam and Karrier-Yorkshire.. Many towns already possessed one or more of these vehicles.
Latest Practice
Formerly, a normal collecting tank was incorporated in gully-emptiers, but The Hague now employed a screen and a device to drain off surplus water.
In this way it was possible to increase the quantity of solid refuse carried, so that with a tank capacity of 3+ cu. m., work could go on for about I-% days before discharging the contents of the tank. A privately designed flushing apparatus had been used with success.
In most towns in the Netherlands, the vehicles of other municipal services were repaired in the workshops of the cleansing service. They were responsible for the transport of gravel, debris, stone and so on.
In this way the total number of municipal lorries could be used better, especially during the period of snow and ice. The public cleansing service had then at its disposal all municipal lorries, so that for clearing snow and spreading salt on icy roads, fewer vehicles had to be hired.
'Requirements in Refuse Collectors
To be ideally suitable for its purpose,
the refuse collector had to incorporate fully mechanical and dustless Loading and packing, without diminishing the loading rate or being confined to a specialized container. It had also to have a variable loading line, said Mr. Skitt when discussing " tools for the job" yesterday morning.
Simplicity was the essence of good design, signifying low capital cost, ease
of maintenance, reliability and durability. The time was not far distant when mechanical packing of refuse within vehicles would become essential. There were several machines available which embodied the principle of chistless loading,, among which was the Shefflex. It was claimed that loading and :packing were. performedWithout &tit; noise,. phYsical effort, darnage to
'bins' or spillage. .
Glass-fibre was now being used more extensively in vehicle bodywork, and Eagle were employing it in the manufacture of sliding covers for Chelseatype bodies. The shutters were so light that both could be placed in one slot, thus ensuring that one side or the other had to be closed, however careless the collectors might be.
Costly 'Hand Scraping
Many of the tasks which came under the heading of street cleansing varied in their magnitude by reason of local conditions, and where large quantities of ash were used for gritting purposes, t he result after a severe winter was often that channels were packed so tightly with ash that not even the scarifying brush of a machine could cope with it. The cost of hand scraping and removal could run a large authority into thousands of pounds. • The provision of a suitable tool for efficiently loosening this caked ash was surely within the bounds of practicability, be it an adaptation of the scarifying brush which would loosen and sweep at the same time, or a separate tool simply for loosening. s
If footpath sweeping was to be performed mechanically, the machine had -to be light, silent, extremely manoeuvrable and collect fine dust. It had not to leave a trail of either brush or wheels in damp weather, or a tide mark on turning in damp or wet weather, whilst the brush should be designed to cater for surface irregularities.
The reason for a lightweight machine was obvious, and a weight of about 15 cwt. ought to he borne in mind. Silence was required-because sweeping was likely to be done at night.
Contradictory Needs
These two requirements tended to contradict one another, because silence almost inevitably called for electric traction, and the weight of the battery alone for operating a machine for
9-10 hours was about 15 cwt. •
Perhaps a sufficiently silent internalcombustion engine could be produced or convenient arrangements made for transferring batteries at the half shift in order to halve battery weight.
Although it could not be said that footpath-sweeping machines were in an advanced stage of development, there were machines that warranted consideration in this field. One was the Karrier, which was a vacuumassisted sweeper-collector of, approximately 12 cwt. unladen weight. Extremely manceuvrable, it had a
hopper capacity of ,} Cu, yd., which was ample for footpath sweeping. Elevation was effected solely by the vacuumassisted brush.
Powered by a J.A.P. 5 h.p. engine, the machine had a width of sweep of 3 ft. or, if the scarifying brush were used, 4 ft.
• An example of an electrically propelled sweeper was the Magpie. Designed originally for factory floors and so on, this machine was also vacuum-assisted and was powered by a 515 a.h. battery.
Mr. Skin questioned whether sufficient attention had been paid in the past to fine dust on the roadway, and said that reliance had been placed upon the cleansing efficiency of the elements and street washing. Both of these were admittedly good cleansing agents, but what about midsummer when water was in short supply? How about the suburbs? Was it too much to ask of aroad sweeper that it should be fitted to perform various graded tasks?
The small electric truck had justifiably found a place in present-day street-cleaning practice. One serious disadvantage • in the past with this system, however, had been the double handling of street sweeping necessitated by the short range Of the trucks. Parentvehicle transfer arrangements were now coming into use, thus facilitating transport and greatly widening the scope Of the system.
Team Sweeping
An interesting example of this was at present in use at Wembley. It combined electric-truck team sweeping, and a Karrier Bantam equipped with a Neal hoist, Sweepings were contained in four separate bins with removable lids and fitted with tipping trunnions. By means of a beam-link arrangement the hoist lifted loaded bins on to the parent vehicle, which served six trucks.
The advance in design of gritting machines and the introduction into this country of snow blowers had been most encouraging over the past few years. Mr. Alexander French, director of cleansing, Falkirk, was to be commended for sponsoring the development of a snowplough with a rubber blade. Two qualities of rubber were used in the blade, one edge being of softer rubber, which was more satisfactory for service as a squeegee.
An example of the rotary snowplough was the Snow Boy. One of these machines had•been in use in Edinburgh since 1953.
Referring to the small Phcenix gullyemptier, Mr. Skitt expressed the opinion that there was no doubt there were certain localities where a machine of this nature was needed, both for cleansing small gullies in places of difficult access and as a lightweight appliance operating on large pavement areas.
[The discussion on these papers and a summary of Mr. Dive's address will be published next week.]