NATIONAL PARK SERVICE Park and Recreation Structures

SAFE DRINKING WATER and sanitary toilets are often cited as the "first things" to be provided in a park for its safe use by the public. Also in this category and hardly of secondary importance is the need for the positive disposal of garbage and rubbish to insure the maintenance of healthful and inviting conditions. As surely as drinking water must be provided and kept uncontaminated and sewage disposal provided and kept uncontaminating, so must garbage and rubbish collection and disposal be positive and complete. The undertaking may not be haphazard. The incinerator is the structural medium, but it is not automatic and depends entirely on the human equation for its effectiveness.

Incinerators provided in the picnic area for operation by the public itself have not proved efficacious, generally speaking. They are most certainly short of positive in disposal of the variety of waste that is the byproduct of picnicking. Picnickers in the mass seem not to be endowed with the knack of operating an incinerator and even their most sincere attempts are not effective in a degree to leave the incinerator a very salutary object in a use area.

A policy that looks to the public to burn its combustible rubbish in picnic fireplaces, deposit its cans and bottles in pits and its garbage in surface containers, assumes public cooperation in a degree that is probably subrealistic. Experienced park men recognize that the missionary work necessary to promote public cooperation in that degree is a formidable undertaking in itself. They willingly take over as operations functions the collection and disposal of refuse beyond that point. Some find the responsibility must be assumed before that point is reached.

Undertaken as a public service operation, the business of collecting garbage and rubbish and of operating and tending the incinerator must be diligent and routine. The schedule will be determined by the measure of the public's preliminary cooperation, the fluctuating use of the picnic facilities, and the types and capacities of containers, pits, and incinerator.

The incinerator can take one of a number of forms. Important details are the determination of a proper capacity, the employment of heat resisting materials, and, for a maximum combustion, the provision for draining accumulated waste prior to burning. An abundant draft is absolutely essential. Overhead shelter for the attendant operating the incinerator is desirable, because for efficiency in operation more than a casual attendance may be necessary, particularly in heavy, rainy weather.

The method of charging the incinerator is deserving of consideration. When the garbage is delivered in truck load quantities, there is saving of labor in an arrangement that permits it to be dumped or shoveled into the combustion chamber from above.

It is regrettable if the flue must be tall and unsightly, but it is more regrettable if, in attempting to overcome this, the draft is reduced beyond the desirable maximum and unnecessary smoke and stench are the result. Prevailing air currents should be studied before the site is determined. Tree growth and other natural screening from view are advantageous only if in that capacity they do not also become obstructions to draft.

Incinerators should be located conveniently near the intensively used areas, yet must be decently retired so that their nuisance quality is minimized.

It might be said in short that incinerators, like equipment and maintenance buildings, and all such other phases of park operation which by their nature are capable of functioning without direct contact with the public, function best if kept from its sight and from its path.

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