It is a moot point whether any other textile enters so extensively into industry in some form or other as cotton. Consequently cotton refuse is recoverable in immense quantities from the factories and workshops where this textile is converted from the piece into garments and other utilitarian articles. These trimmings for the most part are unsoiled, but equally imposing are the contributions from the domestic rag-bag and the refuse bins of other trades, whence the residue is forthcoming in a more or less soiled condition. But a simple cleaning process renders it suitable for further use. Should all possible or promising applications be exhausted to no effect then this residue can always be absorbed by the paper-mill. The paper-making industry may truthfully be described as the salvor’s sheet-anchor; certainly there is no excuse for consigning any cotton fabric to the flames while the paper-maker’s craft flourishes.
But in the majority of instances this waste, as already mentioned, is associated with some other substance, for the simple reason that it constitutes an ideal inexpensive base, or foundation, for carrying the medium desired. Take the rubber mackintosh sheeting as a case in point. Here the cotton sheet foundation is impregnated with rubber to secure the desired waterproofness of the material. But the trimmings need only to be submitted to a solvent treatment to bring about the removal of the rubber, when the cotton base at once becomes released for the paper-maker. The rubber is also retrieved to advantage because it is quite pure. Emery cloth, which has been discarded as too worn for further use, may be similarly treated, the recovery in this instance being of triple value when conducted upon a large scale, comprising respectively the emery powder, the oil, the fabric base, and possibly the metallic dust.
The extraction of nicotine from tobacco is a flourishing industry. This trade has been built upon the commercial utilization of waste, the raw material comprising tobacco declared as unsuitable for the generally recognized commercial applications. The nicotine is extracted for the preparation of insecticides and other commodities for which the juice is eminently adapted.
To obtain the nicotine the discarded tobacco is placed in linen bags. Subsequent treatment follows certain lines. As may be imagined, owing to the extremely oleaginous or gummy character of the juice and grease, these bags become clogged during the extracting process. In course of time they become so saturated as to be unfit for further use, not through any failure of the actual fabric, but because the fine mesh of the material has become choked. Owing to their admitted repulsive character the bags were thrown away or burned.
One firm specializing in this industry accumulated soiled bags to the extent of approximately 2,000 per month. It had never contemplated the feasibility of subjecting them to any treatment, probably because new bags were relatively cheap. But, as a result of the national demand for linen for more vital purposes, and the exceeding scarcity of the basic raw material, which had the effect of sending the price of flax from £54 to £280—$270 to $1,400—per ton, the idea of recovering the bags assumed more pressing significance. A sample was taken and submitted to a degreasing process. It was discovered that the combined action of steam and centrifugal action speedily separated the clogging gummy constituents from the fibres of the linen. When examined after treatment the bags were found to be quite free from every trace of the nicotine, and it would have been difficult for the uninitiated ever to have identified them with the industry of nicotine extraction. The tobacco juice was recovered in appreciable bulk, but what was far more important was the reclamation of the bags. In the cleansed condition they were worth from £20 to £40—$100 to $200—per ton.
To enumerate all the industries from which odds and ends of cotton-waste are derivable would demand too much space. There are stalks and ends of plumes from the fabrication of artificial feathers, tangled bundles of loose tatters, fragments of silk in a thousand and one forms, mercerized and natural, and so on. The yield from a single factory or workroom may be trifling, perhaps, while there is the rag-merchant to hand to take delivery of this residue. A firm may readily concede the preservation of its waste until it assumes a formidable bulk to be more troublesome than it is worth, as well as littering the factory or occupying space which can be put to more valuable account. So it generally throws the residue into the furnace, but the utilization of such waste as fuel represents the most costly method of disposal which could be practised.
The losses arising from such action are immense and deplorable, more especially when it is remembered how easily and readily they might be avoided. It is somewhat consoling to reflect that, to-day, despite the many perplexities involved, the salvage of this refuse is being attacked along serious lines. Factories and workshops are beginning to appreciate that these residues can always command good money from the pulp-makers, the result being that much less residue is being lost through the too handy furnace than formerly. Parings from ladies’ velour hats, felt trimmings, odd pieces from billiard-table cloths—woollen fragments in a thousand different forms are now finding profitable utilization. All such waste is being snapped up greedily by the shoddy mills. During the war some of this waste was somewhat freely absorbed for carrying out elaborate camouflage schemes to screen the movements and disposition of troops, guns, and transport from the prying eyes of the enemy, but to-day it is all being released for the reproduction of clothing material, blankets, and other articles innumerable—all of far-reaching import to the community.
My Lady, when she contemptuously discards her straw hat, does so without venturing a thought as to its possible further value, except, perhaps, as a lighter for the kitchen fire. But the abandoned headgear, together with the straw refuse plaiting from the factory, now possesses a market apart from that for making paper. It is being used extensively for stuffing the backs and seats of cheap furniture. During the period of war this waste was found suitable for another mission and one which still obtains. This was as a substitute for wood-wool, which virtually disappeared from the market. Wood-wool is prepared from wet wood, and, naturally, a certain period of time must elapse to allow it to dry before it can be set to its designed service. When wood was cheap and plentiful this delay presented no handicap, manufacture being continuous, but during hostilities wood became counted among the luxuries of commercial life. It was far too valuable to be shredded into wool, except in severely limited quantities, to act as packing.
As a result of the experiment induced by stringency, plait from old hats, and the factory waste, were found to be quite as good as the wood-wool in this capacity. The colour of the straw, faded or otherwise, constitutes no disadvantage. Consequently, to condemn the abandoned summer friend of the head to serve as a fire-lighter represents approximately its least economical application, although it may come as an equal surprise to learn that the perfect dream of the milliner’s creative faculty may reappear as the protective covering to chocolate and confectionery during transit from manufactory to the retailer in its familiar wooden box.
Discarded umbrella coverings may not appear to possess any further attraction except to the paper-maker. But the waste-expert declares otherwise. A flaw in the silk covering or possible damage wrought while attaching it to the frame no longer constitutes a passport for the material to the dust-bin or flames. Finger-stalls and eye-shades may be contrived from this waste. For making eye-shades it is only necessary to cut a piece of cardboard, likewise retrieved from the waste-bin, to the desired size and shape. Then, by the aid of a little glue the silk section cut from the abandoned umbrella covering may be fastened to the cardboard base.