Waste paper

“ Waste, or Waste leaves. Part of the end papers and the blank leaves between the colored end papers and the book proper; should be part of the same lot of paper with which the book is printed. One of the waste leaves is often pasted to the loose half of the lining paper or end sheet, thus forming a doubled fly-leaf.
Waste papers. See End papers.
Waterproof sheets. Sheets of celluloid or waterproof cardboard sometimes laid in or between books when pressing. ”

“ Rags are the cast-off fabrics of the civilised world. Having served their purpose in administering to the comfort of mankind, they are sorted, graded, and offered in the market for papermakers. For the manufacture of paper for bank-notes new linen cuttings are used, but this is an exceptional material for a special purpose. Sail cloth, bagging, sacking and ropes, made from hemp, jute, manilla hemp, having reached the waste market, are regenerated in the mill as paper. Waste paper of all kinds is sorted and re-made into paper or boards. ”

“ The commercial shortage in the paper industry is being to some extent remedied, at least so far as the Post Office Department can aid and assist, by urging the cooperation of every employe in the conservation of the waste paper in all of the larger post offices of the country. Paper-baling machines are now supplied to the postmasters for this purpose, which not only contributes to economy in use and adds to the visible supply, but is a matter of revenue as well, for what was formerly regarded as waste, and destroyed, is now made a matter of profit. ”

“ The use of waste paper in conjunction with chemical wood pulp has increased to enormous proportions, and it is probable that the increase will continue. Although it is a cheaper raw material than wood, it is reasonable to suppose that as the wood supply decreases and the price of wood pulp advances, the price of waste paper will advance somewhat proportionately. ”

“ Materials.—Too much can scarcely be said in favor of much cutting from an unlimited supply of common wrapping paper, newspaper, or other waste paper, in which the children are entirely unhampered by such injunctions as, "Be careful and get it just right the first time, because you can't have another paper if you waste this piece." ”

“ Even if we take those materials which are accepted as being the most favourable to the manufacture of paper we gain enlightenment. One ton of waste-paper will not yield one ton of new paper as might be imagined. The loss in re-manufacture is about 25 per cent., so that from the 58,000 tons which enter into the made waste of the country we could produce about 44,000 tons of new paper. Cotton [Pg 131] rags have a high yield efficiency, being in the neighbourhood of 85 per cent. ”

“ These fibres are chiefly used for papers which require strength rather than whiteness of colour, such as wrapping papers, &c.
"Broke" paper is a term applied to paper which has been imperfectly formed on the paper machine or damaged while passing over the drying cylinders. Imperfect sheets when they are not sold as retree, and clean waste paper, also come under this designation and are re-converted into pulp after undergoing the treatment described below. ”

“ From the magnitude of the absolute losses it is obvious that we could never have sustained ourselves for long upon the forthcoming supplies of waste-paper and the diminished foreign imports of pulp to serve as raw materials. ”

“ In its general characteristics the oat-husk closely resembles sawdust, while its preparation for paper-making entails a broadly identical process—passage through a grinding mill to reduce the residue to the desired consistency. Investigations proved the suitability of this husk-pulp as an ingredient for making certain low-grade papers, such as are used by grocers, and for the very cheapest literature. Paper so made is composed of oat-husks, 35 per cent.; waste-paper, 50 per cent.; imported pulp, 15 per cent. ”

“ This chute leads into a large bin or baling machine below, from which the material is carted away.
The worth of a paper-cutter operator can be measured by an examination of the waste cuttings. A careless operator can waste a large sum of money in a year. Many persons make a good living from the waste paper of large printing and binding plants by buying it at a nominal price and selling it again at a considerable advance. ”

“ By combination with a mixture of nitric or sulphuric acid and water, soft paper becomes parchment-like and very hard. This requires careful experimenting, for its success depends on the quality of the acid and the texture of the paper. Very remarkable results have been obtained from this, such as material resembling ivory, horn, and tortoise-shell, in large blocks.
Waste-paper is so common and cheap that papier-mâché can always be made anywhere. It is well adapted to close cracks in wood, walls, or elsewhere; and for those who wish for an employment or amusement, it affords endless facilities. ”

“ The material generally used for this class of paper is poplar chemical fibre and waste paper to the extent of 50 per cent., and even up to 75 and 80 per cent. of the total fibre, the balance being rags, or, in cheaper qualities, sulphite wood pulp; the stuff is all mixed together in large beaters, holding from 800 lbs. up to 1,500 lbs. of pulp, where it is about half beaten, and then finished in one or other form of refining-engine.
"The Americans have, I think, more thoroughly studied the question of super-calendering paper than we, and in this respect get better results and better work. ”

“ To collect printed paper, shou tzŭ-chih 收字紙, and burn it in places built for the purpose is to accumulate merit. It is merit to collect this paper, merit to deal in it, and also to buy and burn it. A receptacle for it is hung up in almost every house and school. Men go round the streets collecting the paper from these baskets. It is reckoned very bad taste to put a book in an unclean place or dispose of waste paper in a careless fashion, because writing has been handed down from the sages. ”

“ It is a common belief that many of these men dump their public documents into the waste-paper barrel, for the janitor to realize upon as old paper, which at one time had some value. As a matter of fact, many of them are sold to the junk shops, where they find their way into the secondhand book stalls; and students who want them are grateful for even this opportunity of securing them by purchase. ”

“ The school children of Des Moines, Iowa, are reported to have gathered and sold two thousand dollars' worth of waste paper in one week, and those of many other communities obtained similar results.
VALUE OF BY-PRODUCTS Every successful business man is constantly vigilant to discover and remedy waste in his business—waste of materials, time, and effort. Many of the most valuable products in certain industries are "by-products,"—that is, products produced as an incident to the main industry and from materials that otherwise would have been wasted. ”

“ The mass, when discharged from the boiler and drained is then conveyed to the washing-engine, in which it becomes broken and freed from alkali and so much of the ink as may have been dissolved or loosened, and it is afterwards treated in the beater and mixed with varying portions of other paper stock, according to the quality of paper to be produced. In some mills the boiled waste paper is disintegrated after boiling, by means of the edge-runner (Fig. 19) . ”

“ He must act quickly. Where can he hide this terrible slip of paper? The contents of the waste-paper-basket are kept and in any case, are sure to be examined. There are no means of destroying it; and he dare not keep it. ”

“ We have seen voluminous lists of fibre-yielding materials which have been suggested as suitable for paper-making, but since the greater portion of them are never likely to be applied to such a purpose, we consider the time wasted in proposing them. It is true that the stalks of the cabbage tribe, for example, would be available for the sake of their fibre, but we should imagine that no grower of ordinary intelligence would deprive his ground of the nourishment such waste is capable of returning to the soil, by its employment as manure, to furnish a material for paper-making. ”

“ It might, under exceptional circumstances, when needlework is ordered, be necessary to deposit a few shillings as a guarantee that the materials sent to you will be duly returned or paid for; but if your writings require a deposit of any kind to get them read or published, the waste-paper basket is the best place for them, however highly you may yourself value them. Literature, after all, is a very open market, and fresh blood is always needed, though it may be a difficult matter to get your first step on the ladder. ”

“ Printing paper of any sort is another great source of waste, especially to the inexperienced photographer. Prints are too dark or not dark enough successfully to undergo the subsequent operations. Spoiled material of this kind, however, is not without its uses in photography. Those who swear by the “combined bath,” will find that scraps of printing-out paper, or any silver paper, are necessary to start the toning action.
Spoiled mat surface, printing-out paper, bromide paper, or platinotype should be allowed to blacken all over. ”

“ Sometimes a coating of dull black paint on some of the working equipment is required; sometimes the substitution of a dull-finished for a glossy paper. Sometimes dull-coloured blotting paper can be laid upon the place where the reflected glare comes. Perhaps a dull finish upon that would not only save the time of your workers, but also those who are to use the product after it leaves your hands. The world worked a great many years under the motto, “Give the public what it wants.” ”

“ In the first place, when a new material appears to be promising the question as to whether sufficiently imposing supplies could be forthcoming must be considered carefully. The paper-making machines are insatiable and avaricious, devouring raw material not by the ton but by the thousands of tons. ”

“ Paper is another commodity which, in the past, we have handled along woefully improvident lines, as related in the previous chapter. We have not even taken the trouble to burn it, but have permitted it to drift and flutter hither and thither to find a final repository, grievously soiled and dirty, in the dust-bin. ”

“ This sorting is usually performed by women. Papers areSheeting. as a rule sorted into three different qualities, known in the trade respectively as “perfect,” “retree” and “broke”; the best of the defective sheets form the second quality “retree,” a term derived from the French word retirer (to draw out) , and are sold at a reduced price; sheets that are torn or damaged or too badly marked to pass for the third quality “broke,” are returned to the mill to be repulped as waste paper.
Paper is sold in sheets of different sizes and is made up into reams containing from 480 to 516 sheets ”

“ It would be no exaggeration to say that seventy per cent of the material published in American newspapers and magazines today is pure waste; and therefore seventy per cent of the labor of all the people who cut down forests and manufacture and transport paper and set up type and print and distribute publications is wasted. ”

“ Paper, in one respect, is a curious manufactured product. It can be made from almost any fibrous material with the exception of wool. The knowledge of this fact prompted members of the general public to advance the claims of divers and wondrous substances. ”

“ Rationing brought home the fact that a paper shortage existed, and, of itself, led users to be more sparing in their uses of this article, in precisely the same way as similar measures effected comparative results in connection with foodstuffs and other commodities. But in so far as paper is concerned it is difficult to preach the gospel of economy; it has been ridiculously cheap and abundant for far too long. ”

“ Always object to a parcel being put up in newspaper, as the printing ink will rub off and soil the article enclosed. If it is a little thing that you are going to take home in your own hand, it will smear your gloves. All shopkeepers in good business can afford to buy proper wrapping-paper, and they generally do so. It is very cheap. See also that they do not wrap your purchase in so small a bit of paper as to squeeze and crush it.
We knew an instance of a lady in New York giving a hundred-dollar note to a strawberry-woman, instead of a note of one dollar. ”

“ Whole piles of quired stock, meaning books unbound, are already crumbling to dust in the warehouses of booksellers, never to come to light as books, and many a volume designed to enrich the library of its possessor and to descend as an heir-loom to posterity, now presents to the mortified owner its elegant print surrounded by a margin of tan colour, which in some instances forms, as it were, a complete frame round each page, the oil varnish in the composition of the ink seeming to preserve the interstices between the print from the same kind of discoloration. ”

“ Within the recollection of my father, it was not at all an uncommon occurrence for a parcel of paper to become so completely perished from the circumstance of its not having been thoroughly washed after bleaching, that to draw a sheet as a sample, and to fold it up in the usual way, was found utterly impossible, without the sheets being cracked or broken at every fold. In some instances, the fibre was so completely destroyed, that an entire ream, composed of 480 sheets, might be as readily snapped asunder as a piece of rotten wood, merely by giving it a sharp blow against the back of a chair. ”