THE LAND WHICH HAS NO WASTE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 148, 10 July 1937, Page 11

THE LAND WHICH HAS NO WASTE

NEW GOOPS FROM OLD

Japanese Enterprise

Y^hat BEGOMES of ordinary cotks . used in bottles? asks The China Digest. Nine times out of ten they are thrown away together with the bottles as soon as their duty is over. If they happen to fall into the hands of a frugal housewifo or maid? they may bo kept for a time., but even then, they are thrown away after serving twice or thriee and that is tho end of them. But not in Japan. The world consuming demand for cork is enormous; the indicationa are that tho supply will soon fall short of requirements; and cork products are cxpensivo. And the Japanese know it. Every now and then a man comes around the house and collects all the used corks you may have thrown into the rubbish-heap in the pursuit of your domestic duties. They are then taken to a factory in Okayama, where cork goods, collected from all over the country, are ground into powder by a pulillustration of the adage ".From Tags To tho powder thus ootained an adhesive is added and the mixture is put contracts^ speeifying that "old hats pressed. In timo these used corks are tastcful]y displayed in shops and markets in tho form of sandal-soles, cantooncovers and stoppers, bath-room mats, ctc., etc. Then you buy these sandal- l soles, cantccn-covers and stoppers, bath-room mats, etc., ctc., and come ; home boasting how cheaply you manag- J cd to procuro them (tho whole lot for only a few sen, juy dcar!) not knowing that all the time you were^paying your moncy i'or your corks wliich you had heodlessly thrown into your rubbisli heap a month or so ago. Ts that pocket mirror you bonght so cheaply in Japan thick or tliinT

If it is thiclc^ fcel the edges bcneath the strips of paper or cloth pastod over them. If you find two edges instead of one, you can l>e sure that your mirror is made from a pair of used photographie plates. Ordinarily mirrors are expensive to make. -They cannot be sold to the public at a mueh eheaper pTice than those manufactured out of Japan. Used photographie plates are useless. They have served their original purpose — they are now costless waste. And in Japan nothing is wasted. Some chemicals, a specialised technique — and you have your mirror made from a pair of used photographie plates and costing two sen. The Teason for the double edge is that tho plates are not as a rule thicker than 9 mm. T.licrefore, in order to ob-

tain the desired thi.ckncss, two plates are put together, or even three when mirrors for women are to be manufactured. . People who have passed . through Japan say: "Tlley sell their mirrors ' at less than what it must cost to make them. Why, they can't make any profit at all!" And they wouldn't. -Not/ at least, if they threw away their used photographie plates. When a foreign wife asks her husband what to do with her cast-ofE dress, he sometimes inquires as to whnt makes her think it's cast-off, and sometimes says, "Give it to the poor." But the Japanese wife does not even ask — nor does she give dt to the poor. She takes her ragged kimono to the local weaver who, for a few yen, transforms it on idiis hand loom into a bcautiful "obi"

or sasli, which looks for all the world as if it had just come out of a shop. "Isn't it advautageous, " smiles a weaver f-'to have your old kimono trstnsformed into a beautiful 'obi 5, valued at Y. 20 an^. in some cases more than Y. 50, for a. relativelly ismall charge! .... why, it's only natural that everybody, both rich and poox-, should givo us orders." This industry, whieh makes something new from nothing, .is. a practical must not be reutilised." Accordingly) to riclies." In tlie United States, those in tho hat trade have been wont to draw up contracts, speeifying that ( "old bats must not be reutiliesd." Accordingly, on apjiropriate days each year, - old hats have been gathered and burned. ■ This may be all right in its way, but to the Japanese mind dt seems a criminal waste of money. In their country there is not a square ineh of old hat which is not utilised in some way and does not play its part in the making of slippers, belts, handbags, and a wide variety of other articles. Yes? in Japan nothing is wasted., nothing is thrown away. Scrap iron yields pocket-knives, waste xubber bonnces again and is made into desk pads and toys, while the export of woollen rags as these are xevitalisod into blankets just as comfortablo as the genuine article, into sliirts whieh call for the trained eyo of an expert to distinguish them from those made from real wool, and into many other articles whose priccs . shoek tho markets of Europe and America. This motto of "Waste not, want not," is ono of tho reasons for ihe eonstcrnation Japan is cau.sing in ihe world of trade to-day.