Some details:
Dover year book 1898 reported the start of a Scavenging Depot in Tower Hamlets Road, and the necessary plant, horses and stables, to do the scavenging without the intervention of a Contractor. A paper on the subject gave the following details (which I have condensed): "The scavenging of the town had, until April 1897, been done under contract. The town was divided into two parts, a separate contract being made for each. The house refuse was collected daily, the pails containing refuse being placed on the edge of the pavement or within forecourts, early in the morning, and mostly were removed by 10 am. Dust-bin accommodation in some cases was provided, to be emptied on request, when a card marked "D" was shown in the window.
The street detritus was swept up by Corporation workmen to be carted away by contractors. The contractors found sites for depositing house and street refuse, outside the borough. The contract system being by no means good, a report on the subject was submitted, with a view to the Corporation carrying out the work with their own staff. Disposal and cost were the main items for consideration.
The character of Dover, with its brickyards and agricultural land, gave opportunities for cheap and useful disposal, so the Surveyor could not then recommend the erection of a destructor, - the Corporation did not require to combine it with commercial enterprise, such as electric lighting, and steam-generated plant. The Surveyor made a trial of sending the house and street refuse to sea in one of the Dover Harbour Board's hopper barges. The barge held a two days' supply from the whole town, being 106 cubic yards, or about 60 tons, when shot into the tideway one mile seaward of Admiralty Pier, was taken right away to the eastward, - reliable tests proved that, whatever state of wind or tide, the refuse would not come back into the harbour or be washed on shore. In the experiment, however, there was some difficulty in getting the refuse to leave the barge; on account of its lightness it would not sink through the hopper. This difficulty, however, could be overcome by more skilful loading, the heavy material being placed in the hopper first.
The Surveyor however did not recommend this system on account of the limits of dock accommodation, and the undesirability of loading house refuse into a barge in the inner harbour. The same objection did not attach to street detritus, and he recommended this means of disposing of it.
After inquiry it was found that the house refuse could be disposed of at the local brickyards outside the borough for some years to come, and this mode was approved. It was recommended that the street detritus was sent to sea, and that a steel hopper barge holding 100 tons, enough for 10-days' storage be purchased for this purpose. Accordingly, a tender for such a barge was accepted at £900......"
