Millions from Waste

by Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

Even the manufacture of civilian footwear, especially of feminine fancy boots, yields its quota of waste. But the contribution is not so pronounced as with Service footwear because wider scope exists for working up the surplus. Nevertheless, all waste, no matter what its character may be, has a utilitarian value. The cloth remnants find a ready market for the manufacture of paper. The cork sole cuttings, composed of cork, with cotton and wool attached, are similarly retrieved by the ton. Sorting enables the cork to be recovered for the manufacture of linoleum, the cotton for the paper mills, and the woolly component for shoddy.

Finally we get the floor sweepings—a collection of leather, textiles, and other materials recovered by the aid of the broom. So far as Northampton is concerned—the system probably prevails in other boot-making centres—the practice has been for the municipal authorities to collect these accumulations and to remove them to the dust-destructor for incineration. This was regarded as the simplest, cheapest, and most efficient method for their disposal.

Salvage experts examined these sweepings. They found a far more utilitarian use for this waste. It was worth £2—$10—a ton for conversion into fertilizer. Seeing that about 1,000 tons a year of these sweepings are recoverable from two or three factories it will be seen that we have been content to send £2,000—$10,000—annually up the chimney of a dust-destructor from sheer lack of foresight and the expenditure of a little thought and trouble during the very period when our land is clamouring for nitrogenous fertilizers.

Before leaving the boot trade I might refer to another recent development concerning a certain waste which is of decided interest. Patent cuttings presented quite a different proposal from the odds and ends of ordinary leather. The glossy finish was held to be a drawback, because obviously it would have to be removed before the material could be submitted to any of the purposes described. It was anticipated that such preliminary treatment might prove too expensive to render the recovery worth while. But a simple and cheap process for securing the patent in the form of a fine dust—“curriers’ powder”—was found. This left the leather free for further exploitation. Then the question of turning the reclaimed dust to account arose. Inquiries were made, but there appeared to be no opening for it. It looked as if this curriers’ powder would have to be set on the shelf in company with the recovered grease against a day of brilliant discovery upon the part of the indefatigable chemist.

But a firm specializing in a peculiar phase of activity came along. It was experiencing distinct difficulty in finishing off the work with which it is identified with the requisite degree of satisfaction. Suddenly it had occurred to the technical staff that this fine dust might possibly extricate them from the dilemma with which the firm was confronted. The dust was submitted to trial. The tests are not yet conclusive, but the results so far recorded have fully justified the utilization of this material; certainly the firm in question is disposed to concede its employment as the solution to their difficulty. Should these expectations be fully realized there is every indication that the demand for curriers’ powder will become exceedingly heavy, and from a quarter which will arouse widespread surprise. The consumption in this realm will eclipse that ever likely to be recorded in connection with footwear. While industrial ethics preclude the mention of the precise application in question, it may be added that it is about as closely allied or has as much in common with boots as the use of cheese in the production of steel.

The one overwhelming obstacle to the commercial utilization of waste is organized and cheap segregation and collection. This difficulty is aggravated when the refuse in question happens to be in a combined form, that is to say, when two or three—perhaps more—widely divergent substances are associated to produce the one article. Possibly only one of the constituents possesses a known market, or it may so happen that each of the component substances has a distinct market but only in its individual form.

As a rule any waste of this character from industry is regarded with contempt by the approved specialists in waste collection—the itinerant merchant or the marine store dealer. Both these traders prefer to conduct their operations with approved straight and unadulterated materials. If the waste happens to be of the combined character, they realize that they must expend a certain amount of time and labour in its separation before carrying out its sale to advantage. As they are not inclined towards such exertion they refuse to accept the residue.

It is a foolish policy and one which directly reacts against their own interests. Such combined waste can generally be procured at a trifling figure. The factory in which it accrues cannot afford the labour or time necessary to bring about the separation of the constituents. Yet when separation is completed each class of material at once attains its true value. Resolution of combined waste into its components does not involve any skill, while it is immaterial how roughly the task is performed. The merchants to whom allusion has been made will also spurn waste of undoubted market value if it has been dressed or impregnated with another substance. They will jump at rags no matter how soiled and loathsome their appearance. They know the dirt can be removed readily and cheaply, but they never pause to reflect that substances used for impregnating textiles may be eliminated just as easily. Moreover, unlike dirt, the recovered dressing may possess a distinct commercial value in itself.

Waxed flannel is a recognized commodity, and, in fabricating articles therefrom, appreciable quantities of trimmings are obtained. One firm was in a quandary as to the disposal of this waste. No rag-and-bone merchant would touch it. The firm was quite prepared to sell the refuse at a low figure, fully confident that it could be turned to some profitable purpose. The material was investigated, and the separation of the wax from the woollen base was found to offer no supreme or expensive difficulty. Yet the extraction of the wax made all the difference in the intrinsic worth of the waste. At that time the de-waxed flannel fetched 85s.—$21.25—a hundredweight, while the wax, which was a high-grade product, was also of distinct value because it was available for re-use.

A similar problem cropped up in connection with oil-skin trimmings resulting from the manufacture of garments and other articles. The factory concerned stated that the waste was somewhat pronounced from the magnitude of its business, but what to do with it was beyond their knowledge. Experiment proved the separation of the oil to be an easy matter, and so the release of the cotton textile was secured. In the degreased form the trimmings fetched from 50s. to 60s.—$12.50 to $15—a hundredweight at the time, while the oil was also a valuable by-product and was readily absorbed by industry at a favourable figure.