CO129-627-2 Fertilizer factory new territories- contains drawings 1-12-1950 - 31-1-1952 — Page 84

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Material

Rags

Paper (Clean)

Broken Glass

Plastics Bottles

Tins

Scrap Iron

Probable Selling Price, as Suggested by:-

Fr. McCarthy

$200 per ton

$85 to $150 per ton

$50 per ton

$1.50 per catty. Up to 0.15 cach

About $0.3 cach

S.H.T. Sen.

$0.25 per catty (= 420 per ton.)

$0.08 per catty,

(= $134 per ton.)

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$50.00 por 100 catties (= $840, per ton. $0.40 per catty. (= $672 per ton.)

No clean, salvageable paper is apparent in the refuse at Kun Tong. I understand that newspapers and bottles are generally the perquisites of houseboys, and removal of other articles undoubtedly occurs en route between the domestic source and the final destin- ation, where further picking is done by squatters.

10. Barge Routine. Every day one or two empty barges are brought

alongside cach of the six dustboat stations (three in Hong Kong and three in Kowloon) and the full barges from each station are towed to Kun Tong. Also, every day an empty barge is brought to cach of the six nightsoil stations (three in Hong Kong and three in Kowloon) and the same barge, after having been filled, is towed next morning to the position near Kau I Chau Island where the containers are emptied and washed with sea water.

Three tugs are employed in maintaining the circulation of these barges. In all, five return journeys to Kun Tong dump and three return journeys to Kau I Chau Island are made every day.

Apart from accidents, this routine is interrupted only during the periods when a storm warning is in boing. The refuse then accumulates at the dustboat stations. There have in the past been no arrangements for dealing with nightsoil, which was presumably emptied by householders down the slop water sewers whenever the collection and disposal service was suspended. However, during the stormy weather on Sunday, May 13th, a new method, which had been agreed with the Public Works Department, was employed, whereby nightsoil was collected and emptied into a few selected sewer manholes.

11. The new steel barges in use for conveyance of nightsoil and refuse, as shown, respectively, on Marine Department Drawings Nos. 109 A and 111, are prototypos which, I understand, have already proved their worth, and it is intended to renew the barge flccts with similar vessels.

The Marine Department considers that those barges would not be suitable to be emptied by means of a mechanical grab bucket, which might damage the platos.

12. Maturing of Nightsoil. As the use of raw nightsoil is prohibited, the maturing for 28 days of a proportion of the daily collection has been carried on since the war in storage tanks at Castle Peak. The object has been to achieve destruction of pathogenic organisms, in order to be able to supply a safe product to farmors. ova and viable forms of other pathogens have been found in the

Hookworm matured night soil, which is, however, an improvement hygienically on the raw material and, on account of the need for organic fertil- isers, it is supplied to farmers through a contractor.