Frederick Arthur Ambrose Talbot

“ But one of the most powerful expressions of the possibilities attending the scientific utilization of waste, and one which brings home very forcibly to us the national wealth to be won from refuse, is associated with our woollen industry. Where would Yorkshire be without mungo or shoddy? Dewsbury has become the world’s centre for the disposal of old clothes and woollen rags. Here converge all the streams bearing abandoned flotsam and jetsam into the preparation of which wool has entered. There is scarcely anything more disreputable, if not actually repellent, than a sack of woollen rags. ”

“ Science is ever advancing and the exploitation of waste lies in its true scientific utilization. Under the present conditions inventive effort in this province is not able to exercise the influence or reap the benefits which it really deserves. The tendency to be satisfied with what is already installed, no matter how inefficient it may be, is too deeply implanted. On the other hand, competition is the lever which impels private enterprise. To turn a blind eye to invention is to court disaster. ”

“ Waste is merely raw material in the wrong place. In the spirit fostered by our traditional improvidence we have sought to adapt another existing term to meet the situation. We glibly dismiss waste as rubbish. It is not, but because we have been too indolent to occupy our minds in the elaboration of further possible applications for what we do not actually require for conduct of the operations with which our individual exertions are identified, we seek to satisfy our consciences in the easiest manner. ”

“ Oil is the blood of industry. Do we ever pause to reflect as to what would happen if we were suddenly to be deprived of our supplies of this commodity? Do we realize that without oil every machine would instantly be condemned to idleness, that our clocks would stop, and that it would be impossible for a train, steamship, tram, or omnibus to move a yard? ”

“ The chemist can solve it quickly and cheaply. But the great feature which makes irresistible appeal to those who dwell in such homes is that they are always sweet and clean. Washing down walls, ceilings and floors of a room at one and the same time with a garden hose is something beyond the comprehension of British householders, but they will scarcely deny its virtues, and, probably, wish heartily that they were in a similar happy position, because nothing detracts so seriously from the pleasures and comfort of the home as dust and dinginess. ”

“ It may not seem a savoury occupation to rake over the repulsive assorted contents of the household dust-bin, but it serves to swell, to an appreciable degree, the streams of raw materials flowing into the insatiable maws of industry. What is left after these industrious toilers have completed their work finds its way to the dust-destructor to assist in the raising of steam to drive engines and generators for the supply of electricity.
The diligent exploitation of waste exercises a far-reaching influence upon the wealth of nations. ”

“ We must ruthlessly scrap the old, which has obtained for so long, in favour of the new. Science is forcing the pace, and she will no more be arrested by obsolete theories and arguments than the tides will be held up by a child’s spade. Already she is asserting her power. Contemporary methods are wickedly extravagant, and it is this absurd wastage which is primarily responsible for enhanced costs. The ways of science are inscrutable, but they are sure none the less: the first indications of chafing at delay always assert themselves in the traditional becoming too expensive to maintain. ”

“ Although we have made vast strides during the past few years in the processes of reclamation and utilization of waste we are still far from having penetrated the threshold of the new world of industry, science, and invention which it embraces. The unknown lies before us. For aught contemporary knowledge can say, other triumphs and vast fields of conquest, comparable with those associated with the gas and oil industries, are waiting to be discovered, and this fact is adequate to foster experiment, research, and investigation. ”

“ The wastage of paper throughout the country is appalling. Upon the completion of its designed function the material is either burned, consigned to dust-bin, or allowed to pursue an aimless journey at the mercy of the wind through our highways and byways. People of a thrifty turn of mind undoubtedly save their waste, disposing of it at intervals to itinerant collectors, who acquire the litter of the house in exchange for something more or less attractive, if not useful, in kind. ”

“ Waste recovery as it should be practised to-day is a science. It is just as precise a science as the extraction of nitrogen from the atmosphere, the smelting of steel, or the production of artificial silk. Hit-and-miss methods may have sufficed during the years when commodities were cheap and plentiful, but to-day there is a world-wide stringency in the supply of anything and everything necessary to commerce. As a consequence prices are ruling high, and so the practice of waste recovery along extremely well-defined scientific lines is essential. ”

“ The search for the most promising fields for waste-products is far too fascinating. Even the private member of the community is taking a hand in the great game, and is contributing, in varying degree, to the widespread success which has been, and still is being, recorded.
The rural housewife, in her lonely remote home, contributes to the amenities of country life by bottling her own fruits, following this practice to avoid wastage arising from a glut of produce in her own garden, or in her appreciation of the prolific luscious contributions offered by the wild hedgerow. ”

“ Easy conquest does not appeal to his well-ordered mind, and so we see a spirited struggle in progress to increase efficiency. At the same time in attaining this eminent factor the inventor must keep his eye and hand upon the issue of cost. If it is going to cost more to extract the last absolute ounce than that ounce is worth, then the effort is futile. Commercialism, which considers inventive ingenuity merely from the angle of pounds, shillings and pence, or dollars and cents as the case may be, is not impressed by the mere beauty of any process or apparatus. ”

“ At the moment the losses in this direction may not be so heavy as they have been in the past, for the simple reason that oil, in common with other commodities and in compliance with the inexorable law of supply and demand, has become more expensive. As the price rises the tendency to be sparing and careful becomes more marked, which only serves to prove that cheapness is the primary incentive to waste. ”

“ We talk glibly of exploiting waste, but how many products entering intimately into our everyday life are being passed through the mill of reclamation? A little reflection will speedily exhaust the list. If we look around we can satisfy ourselves how much and what a variety of substances are still being permitted to run to utter loss. We have not yet found a use for spent matches, or a means of retipping those which have been scarcely lighted, despite the fact that this indispensable attribute to modern civilization has increased from 300 to 800 per cent. ”

“ They represent waste from the cook-house stripped as cleanly of meat and fat as a sharp knife in dexterous practised hands will allow. Their gravy-yielding and other nutritious constituents have been extracted from prolonged sojourn in the stock-pots. When they reach the swill-mill they appear to be as capable of rendering any further contribution to the general scheme as those bones which have passed through the hands of a frugal housewife. They have reached the stage when such refuse is either thrown into the kitchen fire, dust-bin, or handed over to the peripatetic rag-and-bone monger. ”

“ Now, no matter how persistently and effectively the lessons of economy may be preached in the kitchen and at the table as much in the home as in the army, and notwithstanding the infinitesimal degree to which the proportion of spoiled food may be reduced by the introduction of superior methods and skill, a certain amount of waste is unavoidable. It cannot be overcome in its entirety. Tastes differ so widely that odds and ends are certain to be left untouched upon the plate, while a certain accumulation of gristle, bone, fat and other inedible portions must be expected. ”

“ Gas, the staple product from the distillation of coal three-quarters of a century ago, now, to all intents and purposes, is the by-product. The world could roll along very comfortably without it. Indeed, we may have to do so in the near future when the gas is stripped of every other marketable constituent, leaving only a mixture of methane and hydrogen gases to be burned under boilers to raise steam for the generation of electricity in enormous bulk. ”

“ Civilization breeds a strange fastidiousness. The idea of reclaiming sewage for exploitation is repulsive to the average individual, although he does not turn a hair at the use of the comparative material derived from the animal kingdom for the nourishment of the soil, and the feeding of produce cultivated essentially for the table. The argument often raised against any exploitation of excrement is that it has become associated with many other deleterious substances, which have been thrown or allowed to run down the drain, as the readiest avenue for their disposal. ”

“ But the mere fact that an adequacy of raw materials cannot be procured merely because one may be disposed to pay fictitious prices, is stimulating interest in the waste issue to a degree which, under conventional conditions, would never have obtained. In times of plenty one does not pause to consider for a moment as to whether it is worth while to devote any time and energy to the exploitation of a certain refuse. ”

“ In the knowledge that the average house, office and factory has no conception of the value of its refuse, or is ready to part with it for nothing because it is regarded as a nuisance, the waste merchant is disposed to become discriminatory and autocratic. He is perfectly ready to acquire what he knows full well possesses a distinct value so long as he can get it for nothing. The moment the owner sets a value upon the flotsam and jetsam the waste merchant will have nothing to do with it. ”

“ If we were to turn the whole of our residues, both industrial and domestic, to the utmost account we should be able to cut down our annual expenditure upon purchases from abroad to a very startling degree. Every ton of import saved not only represents the retention of so much sterling in our pocket, but releases a ton of shipping for the movement of other material, not necessarily to these islands, but between other countries, since it must not be forgotten that we derive an appreciable proportion of our national income from carrying the trade of the world. ”

“ Fire is an excellent destructive agency, but is far too handy for the removal from sight, if not from memory, of the multitude of odds and ends incidental to our complex social and industrial existence. With the coming of the electric age, and the supersession of kitchen stoves and factory furnaces by cheap current, the facilities for the ready destruction of what is really valuable raw material under the guise of waste will be removed. In the interests of economy and wealth, both individual and national, it is to be hoped that the coming of the electric era may not be unduly delayed. ”

“ The housewife is prone to regard them as mere waste when she has extracted the utmost recoverable value therefrom in the kitchen. She may possibly retain them until the itinerant specialist in this commodity, to wit, the rag-and-bone man, comes round, in which event it is sure to be sped once more on a journey of industrial exploitation. But at least one-third of the bones which enter the households of Britain escape reclamation. They are wantonly wasted, and it is to be feared that the kitchen stove is mainly responsible for this loss. ”

“ CONVERTING NITROGENOUS REFUSE INTO SOAP
A startling corollary of contemporary economic conditions is the spirited struggle which is now being waged between the table and the bath. The structural fabric of the human body demands a certain proportion of fat to ensure its smooth rhythmic working in precisely the same way as a machine requires oil. At the same time a cleanser is necessary wherewith to scour the external surface of the body to obtain protection against the ravages of disease. Fat is essential to fulfil this mission also. ”

“ How much of this huge yield of waste is turned to industrial account? But an insignificant fraction, as is proved by its commanding no market value. Certain enterprising authorities, such as the City Fathers of Glasgow, by taking a little trouble, are able to dispose of the whole of their output of this residue and at a profitable figure. Surely what can be done by one authority is capable of being achieved by others up and down the country.
But clinker waste is not the only refuse adapted to building operations. Concrete is something like paper—can be made virtually from anything. ”

“ City and borough corporations, unlike private organizations, are not in the position to scrap an existing plant for one which is of later date and greater efficiency, because there is not the same incentive to reap the utmost benefits attainable as prevails under private conditions where the full brunt of competition is encountered. Of course, the initiative of corporations is just as pronounced as that of private firms and individuals, but it is the exception rather than the rule. ”

“ The closely observant student of the countryside, during his autumnal rambles through the copses and spinneys, reflects upon the profusion of the hazel-nut, and the circumstance that this crop is permitted to fall to the ground to rot, or to suffer only partial appropriation by the thrifty squirrel. Surely, he ruminates, such wild fruit possesses some commercial value. The shell can be turned into a high grade charcoal for the laboratory, while the nut itself is rich in oil, which it ought to pay to extract, leaving a residue to offer an excellent winter-feed for cattle. ”