Industrial waste

“ The reclamation and exploitation of waste products for a variety of industrial uses constitute one of the most fascinating and increasingly important developments in modern industry. It is a subject of which very little is known outside privileged circles, and the possibilities of which are but scantily appreciated by the average individual. ”

“ It is likewise somewhat difficult to bring home to them what really can be achieved by the scientific treatment of their waste. In order to popularize the practice, and to further the observance of economies which are inseparable from industrial operations under contemporary conditions, more than one British firm is prepared to advance an attractive commercial proposal. ”

“ 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. ”

“ High speed of working, combined with the size of the block which may be turned out therewith, enables it to consume such material at relatively high speed. In a Midland town where aggregate of a waste character was required for the fashioning of such blocks, the whole of the daily accumulation of residue from the local electric light station, averaging seven tons, had to be supplemented by supplies of similar waste from private industrial establishments to keep the machine working steadily throughout the day. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As the disposal of carbages should be done properly, so that the polution of air is avoided, Disposal of human waste products, and death bodies If industrial wastage should be done properly. Disposal of hospital waste must be done. ”

“ Business and Industry Role. - The Commission shall encourage commercial and industrial establishments, through appropriate incentives other than tax incentives to initiate, participate and invest in integrated ecological solid waste management projects to manufacture environment-friendly products, to introduce develop and adopt innovative processes that shall recycle and re-use materials, conserve raw materials and energy, reduce waste, and prevent pollution and to undertake community activities to promote and propagate effective solid waste management practices. ”

“ The major environmental problems of today began with the Industrial Revolution. Belching smoke from factory stacks and the dumping of raw industrial wastes into rivers became the readily identified, but generally ignored hallmarks of "progress" and production. They are no longer ignored, but the extraordinary growth of the American economy continues to outpace the efforts to deal with its unwanted by-products. ”

“ The need of conspicuous waste, therefore, stands ready to absorb any increase in the community's industrial efficiency or output of goods, after the most elementary physical wants have been provided for. ”

“ Waste recycling and reuse have become accepted practices in many industrial sectors. In some industrialized countries technologies to scrub sulphur and nitrogen compounds from smokestack gases made remarkable advances in a relatively short time. New combustion techniques simultaneous, raise combustion efficiency and reduce pollutant emissions. [13] Innovative products and process technologies are also currently under development that promise energy- and resource-efficient modes of production, reducing pollution and minimizing risks of health hazards and accidents. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The competition between the various nations in this manufacturing field is excitingly keen. It must not be forgotten that, in this industry, waste plays a very prominent part as a raw material. It may be tins rescued from the domestic dust-bin, turnings from the lathe, a worn-out locomotive boiler, or the battered hulk of a steamship snatched from the jaws of the hungry seas through the ingenuity of the salvage engineer.
In the handling of scrap and junk the designing engineer has been strikingly ingenious, resourceful, and free with his expressions of resource. ”

“ Another poorly used resource is solid wastes. the disposal of which has become a major problem in many cities. with much of it dumped and uncollected, Promoting the reclamation, reuse, recycling of materials can reduce the problem of solid waste, stimulate employment, and result in savings of raw materials. Composting can support urban agriculture. ”

“ On the other hand, in the large factory, the accumulations being of distinct magnitude, segregation and careful retention are observed to facilitate ready sale, while arrangements are even completed for the periodical clearance of the refuse at mutually satisfactory if not prevailing market prices. Whether the waste ever commands its real intrinsic value is a matter of opinion, because we have never been persuaded to regard the residue disposal problem in the strict commercial sense. ”

“ Not only would considerable stretches of derelict agricultural Britain be brought into productivity, but the very stimulation of the poor soils would bring about startling expansion in the production of artificial fertilizers, and would tend to stabilize such industries. In this way the recovery of waste in many other directions would be fostered—potash from the flues of the blast furnaces; basic slag from the dumps disfiguring the countryside in the vicinity of our ironworks; sulphate of ammonia from our gas and coking ovens; nitrates from the air. ”

“ Consumers pay high freight rates and the railroads are so overcrowded that they are unable to care for all the business, while the rivers, the cheapest of all carriers, flow idly to the sea.
We have seen how one-fourth of the coal is left in the mines, and how small a part of that which is mined is actually turned into heat, how gas is allowed to escape unchecked into the air. And greatest and most serious of all, the useless waste of human life and health. ”

“ Others, as refuse food, human and animal remains, and excretal and many kinds of waste materials from workshops and factories, are deleterious chiefly because they are not removed, or destroyed chemically, so as to remove them in an innoxious gaseous form, or so to fix them as to prevent them forming noxious gases. ”

“ Industry and its products have an impact on the natural resources base of civilization through the entire cycle of raw materials exploration and extraction, transformation into products, energy consumption, waste generation, and the use and disposal of products by consumers. These impacts may be positive, enhancing the quality of a resource or extending its uses. Or they may be negative, as a result of process and product pollution and of depletion or degradation of resources. ”

“ Still, even this achievement should not dissuade us from continuing to exploit the waste dust recovered from our blast-furnaces. Immense quantities of the essential material are forthcoming, the potash content of which varies from 3 to 13 per cent. As output increases it should be capable of recovery at a decreasing figure and at one which should enable the indispensable product to be placed upon the market at a competitive figure. ”

“ But the reduction of mechanical toil to the lowest practicable point, and a generous development of the idea and practice of the vocational life seem to be essential. And the general principle which we desire for mechanical tasks of production should be applied in other regions, as for instance in the distributive trades and in those occupations which are concerned with the disposal of waste. The increasing emphasis on hygiene has led to the multiplication of a number of “waste-occupations,” the street-cleaner, the drain-man, the garbage-man and so forth. ”

“ The investigations into waste in mining and the testing of the waste, bone, and slack coal in gas producers, as briquettes, etc., have, for their purpose, the prevention of this form of waste by demonstrating that these materials, now wasted, may be used profitably, by means of gas producers and engines, for power purposes. ”

“ With such a machine practically any form of inorganic residue can be put to useful constructional account. Its perfection is enabling private authorities to exploit profitably dumps of refuse which have long been eyesores in the locality for material to satisfy their own building needs. One gas company, which formerly contracted in the usual way for extensions to its buildings, generally in brick or stone, now completes all such work with its own labour and with its own waste, its one expenditure for material being the requisite cement. ”

“ We can see that the lead resources of the United States are not large and that when our own supply is exhausted we can not turn to the rest of the world.
The waste in mining is not large, and most of it can not be avoided at present prices; so that for the conservation, which we see is so important, we must turn to the uses of lead. The most necessary of these is for lead pipes in plumbing. Another use is for war supplies, which not only makes heavy drains on our stores of coal and iron, but also on lead, which is much less plentiful. ”

“ It does not mean that we shall let our mines of coal and iron lie unused, as the miser does his gold, but that we shall, while taking what we need, leave as little waste in the mine as possible, and shall use what we take in the most economical way. ”

“ In this form it meets with the full approval of the farmer, and, as its nitrogen content is said to range up to 9 per cent., it is meeting with ready disposal, the demand at the present moment being far in excess of supply. At one works an output of 60 tons a week is being recorded, which incidentally indicates the quantity of leather waste incurred in our boot-producing factories. ”

“ That the term 'waste' as used herein, in addition to its ordinary meaning, shall include economic waste, underground waste, surface waste, and waste incident to the production of crude oil or petroleum in excess of transportation or marketing facilities or reasonable market demands. The Corporation Commission shall have authority to make rules and regulations for the prevention of such wastes, and for the protection of all fresh water strata, and oil and gas bearing strata, encountered in any well drilled for oil. ”

“ 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. ”

“ While, to a certain degree, we have become wiser in our generation, and are handling our coal resources and the residuals resulting therefrom with less prodigality, we are still woefully improvident in this field. The degree of waste, despite the reforms introduced, has become accentuated essentially because of the increased magnitude of this industry. The blind adherence to typically British methods and ideas has led to some striking anomalies which to other nations must appear almost incredible. ”

“ The bulkier material remaining in the revolving conical grid is discharged on to a conveyor. While being moved forward all material of value, such as waste-paper, tins, scrap-metal, waste-food, rags, bones, glass and so on are picked off by hand to be thrown into bins. The manual labour employed to carry out this task of segregation may be considered to be an adverse cost factor. But against this expenditure for separation by hand must be set that formerly entailed in the destruction or other disposal of this material. ”

“ The manufacturer who discovers a heretofore unknown use for the waste product of his work necessarily cheapens the cost of the principal article of his production, and thus secures an advantage over competitors. Much, as we have seen, has already been done in this way, but there are many other products which could be made under the direction of that mighty converter, chemistry, to yield substances of use and profit.
Science has taught us how to transmute the waste and refuse materials—elements of pollution—into sources of economy and wealth. ”