WASTE NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 24, 26 March 1915, Page 4 (Supplement)

WASTE NEWSPAPERS IN AMERICA.

What becomes of the thousands upon thousands of newspapers that are discarded by readers on street cars, railroads, and in the homes? The question must naturally obtrude itself on the niiuds of many in the hurrying throngs to and from business who note the disorderly litter that collects at terminal stations.

Waste newspapers are used almost exclusively in the manufacture of the cardboard or pasteboard which goes to form the paperboard box ia which dress makers, shoemakers, and department stores generally deliver dresses, suits, shoes, etc., and one of the largest factories-' in the United States for the manufacture of this kind of cardboard is located just outside of Philadelphia on the Schuylkill River at Hanayunk.

Long trains of freight ears may he seen at Manayunk, any day, loaded with bales of waste newspapers, the collection of many cities, which have been assembled here for conversion into the clean sheets of cardboard that will be iced later for fashioning a box fit to hold my lady's gown of daintiest chiffon or tulle.

The preliminary operation of unpacking the bales of material which have been put together by waste paper dealers is not an agreeable operation to witness. As the mixed newspaper refuse is old by weight, waste paper dealers are not overcareful in the sorting of the material, and tin cans and other heavy materials may be surreptitiously introduced at some stage of the process of [jacking the small bundles which are turned in by individual collectors of the material.

If one can stand the choking dust that arises as bales are opened and sorted by the busy workers in the paperboard factory, and he watches the operation of unpacking, he will note the truly miscellaneous character of the contents of these bales of "'waste ji.ip; r," which include newspapers of morning and afternoon editions with all their embellishments of scarcheads in black and red, in company with a miscellaneous assortment of paper material like carnival streamers, herleipiin cap-;, confetti, empty firecrackers, and all the discarded paper waste of homes, stole-, and streets.

After a rough preliminary sorting in which the heavier adulterants are re-

moved, the mi>ss of paper i> ground to pulp i;i a special heating ami washing •ngine. The mass is then led over strainers and the odds and ends of tin, !io:iox, wooden toys, iron and wolloil material thai have escaped the attention of ilie iirst sorter- are removed. A specsal furnace is maintained for the incineration of those foreign materials, the

ash of which is utilised in other industries. It takes ;i lot of heating, pulping, and washing to transform the heterogenous mass of mixed paper-, which ha- the appearance of so much useless rubbish and waste, into the clean card- ' lard material into which it is ultimately fashioned.

The average suit or shoe box has a story of it- own, and is not the simple, pn.-aic article it look-'. If m\ lady who unpick--, the container of dainty shoes, slippers or garments, ;-.s received from tie' -tore. :■ mid reeonsi rue! the materials of whieh the box is composed, she would be more amazed than the subiocf ol » fairy - nchnirnmnl : for forests have gone to the making of the newspapers which form the substance of the box, the earth he- given up clay to its fashioning, and iiJterwoven with ii are the st- amors, firecracker c -a- cs and llie'ar-

: his apnarellini's of manv a carnival. .Mded to all this ntitlht -land revealed many a thrilling story of life's comedy or tragedy as told in the day's news.