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“A Community Problem” is a rarely seen 1950s-era film by Caterpillar Inc. covering the sanitation industry. In an era before Americans produced anywhere near as much trash as today and when the word recycling was not widely used, this film seems slightly innocent, but it presents the problems of waste management with a great deal of clarity and even shows recycling in action. We watch as African American garbagemen empty trash cans into the back of a garbage truck and taken to a dump (mark 00:55), used as feed for hogs, or incinerated. Some trash is shown taken to a landfill or being eliminated via a garbage disposal (mark 01:15). How where it is disposed of, we are told, is a community problem. Amid scenes of feeding troughs, incinerators, and open dumps, the narrators details the pluses and minuses of each method of disposal.Among the negatives cited for dumps - rats, which are shown scurrying about a city dump at mark 03:56 and blamed for carrying a variety of diseases. Perhaps the least objectionable method of trash disposal is a landfill (mark 04:23), as earth-moving equipment are shown digging trenches and later pushing and burying mounds of garbage. The film explains various types of equipment that can used in landfills (including a front-end loader and tractor-bulldozer) and how they are used on a job. The equipment is designed to be used year-round, as equipment is shown completing its tasks in the snow (mark 09:55). The narrator sums up the benefits of landfills beginning at mark 10:58, including collection of garbage and refuge at the same time, allowing disposal sites to be located near populated areas, and reducing the spread of disease and proliferation of rodents.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit www.PeriscopeFilm.com