Millions from Waste

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

All trimmings from the glass in cutting the discs were carefully garnered. These formed what is known as “glass cullet,” which was returned to the glass-makers. Being of high quality the cullet commanded a ready sale, the glass obtained from re-melting being used for the fabrication of ink-bottles, salt-cellars, scent-bottles and a hundred and one other articles in urgent request, while an appreciable quantity was again converted into the base for further photographic negatives.

Plates exceeding the officially inscribed thickness of one-sixteenth of an inch were not unceremoniously consigned to the melting-pot, but after being stripped of the emulsion, were sold to the trade for contrivance into the passe-partout photographic mounts so much the vogue to-day among enthusiastic amateur photographers, for picture framing, and numerous other applications for which their dimensions and the quality of the glass rendered them eminently suitable.

Turning to another phase of industry, gloves of every description have soared in price, irrespective of the materials used in their production. Even those contrived from stout textile, which five years ago were readily procurable for a few pence, commanded shillings a pair. In this instance the rise in price was primarily due to the call for vast quantities by the munition factories to extend a measure of protection to the hands of the workers, more especially the women. Toiling Britain became converted to the gauntlet habit, so pronounced across the Atlantic, as a result of war.

As may be imagined, from the character of the work involved, these gloves suffered speedy deterioration, becoming saturated with grease and grime from the handling of metal and the operation of machinery and tools. One firm found itself saddled with 112 lb. of these dirty gloves every week, and the item “glove renewals” consequently grew somewhat impressive. Feeling that this expenditure might be capable of reduction, the firm sought a simple and inexpensive cleaning process for the removal of the grease, to give the gloves a new lease of useful life, the fact having been ascertained that the textile itself suffered little injury as the result of a few days’ wear and tear.

Experiments were made and the requirements of the firm were met very effectively. Not only were the gloves turned out clean and sound, enabling them to be used over and over again until the textile was worn out, but the oil and grease with which they were sodden was recovered. This was cleaned and found serviceable either as “cutting oil” for use with the tools, or as fuel oil for engines of the Diesel type.

I have previously referred to the reclamation of the grease from the leather trimmings accruing from the manufacture of boots for the Services. The trimmings represent pieces of good sound leather, of all shapes and sizes, some of the fragments being of relatively large dimensions. A selection of this waste from two large Northampton factories was secured. It was carefully sorted. The larger pieces were found to be useful for providing patches of varying sizes, capable of profitable use by the trade for the repair of civilian footwear. The larger sections of soleing leather were similarly sorted, having been found adaptable to what is known as “packing-up” in resoleing operations.

By the time this sorting had been completed only shreds and tatters of leather were left. These were degreased for the recovery of the dubbin-like fat already described, and to leave the leather quite clean, soft, and pliable. The fragments from the uppers were again examined, and found capable of further selection to serve as raw material for another industry which was being sorely harassed from the non-availability of the raw leather upon which it was normally dependent. This was the fabrication of the tiny, circular, serrated-edge leather discs or “tufts” used in the making of mattresses for bedding.

This discovery proved to be extremely opportune. Leather had grown so scarce that the normal supplies for this range of duty had been summarily cut off. Yet mattresses cannot be made without these tufts, and the bedding trade had been striving diligently to discover the suitability of certain suggested substitutes, when along came the suggestion that degreased uppers waste from the boot factories might possibly satisfy all demands in this direction.

The ability to exploit the residue in this manner provided the Lord Roberts’ Memorial Workshops with an additional field for activity, of which due advantage was taken. Then it was found that the soleing leather might be put to equally useful service. Many trades were reduced to a quandary from the inability to obtain leather supplies from which to make washers. This waste was found to fill the bill very neatly, because as with boots so with washers—there is nothing like leather. Certainly no substitute therefore has yet been found able to fulfil the required duty so efficiently as the hide from the cow, although there has been no lack of enterprise in this direction. The wisps and scraps of uppers and soles of leather remaining from this selection—mere shavings and shreds—are ground up and converted into fertilizer.

That leather trimmings from the boot factories, hitherto regarded as absolutely useless, are forthcoming in sufficient quantities to fulfil the claims of the tuft and washer trades have been definitely ascertained. The residue is far more imposing than might popularly be conceived, especially in connection with the production of Service boots. Organized collection alone is required to bring this source of possible supply into contact with the market. From three factories alone approximately 2,300 lb. of trimmings are obtainable every week. Multiply this yield by the number of boot factories in the country, and it will be seen that this leather waste could supply adequate material to allow tufts and washers to be turned out in their millions during the course of the year.