Land of No Waste.

Waikato Times, Volume 121, Issue 20272, 14 August 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

Land of No Waste.

Japanese Enterprise : : New Goods from Old (Tire China Digest.)

WHAT BECOMES of ordinary corks used in buttes? Niue times out ol' 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 housewife or maid, they may be kept for a time, but even then, they are thrown away after serving twice or thrice and that is the end of them. But not so In Japan. The world’s demand for cork is enormous; the indications are that the supply will soon fall short of requirements; and cork products are expensive. 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 nubbish-heap in the pursuit of your domestic duties. They arc then taken to a factory in Okayama, where cork goods, collected from all over the country, ore ground into powder toy a pulveriser. To the powder thus obtained an adhesive is added and in time these used corks are tastefully displayed in shops and markets in the form of sandal-soles, can-teen-covers and stoppers, bath-room mats, etc., etc. They vou buy these sandal-soles, canteen-covers and stoppers, bath-room mats, etc., etc., and come homo boasting how cheaply you managed to procure them i the whole lot for only a few sen, my dear!) n.»t knowing that all the time you were paying your money for your corks which you had heedlessly Thrown Into Your Rubbish heap a month or so ago. Is that pocket, mirror vou bought so cheaply in Japan thick or thin? If it is thick, feel the edges beneath the strips of paper or cloth pasted over them. If you And two edges instead of one. you can be sure that your mirror s made from a pair of used photographic plates. Ordinarily mirrors are expensive to nake. Used photographic 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 photographic plates and costing two sen. The reason for the double edge is that the plates are not »s a rule thicker than 9 mm. Therefore, in -irdcr to obtain the desired thickness, two tales arc put together, or even three when

mirrors for women are to be manufactured. People who have passed through Japan say: “They sell their mirrors at less than what it must eosL to make them. Why, they can't make any profit at all I" And they wouldn't. Not, at least, if they threw away their used photographic plates. When a foreign wife asks her husband what to do with her cast-off dress, he sometimes inquiries as to what makes her think it's cast-olf, and sometimes says, “ Give it to the poor.” But the Japanese wife does not even ask—nor does she give it to the poor. She takes her ragged kimono to the local weaver, who, for a few yen, Transforms It On His Hand Loom into a beautiful "obi" or sash, which looks for all the world as if it had just come out of a shop. “ Isn't it advantageous," smiles a weaver, “to have your old kimono transformed into a beautiful ‘obi ’ valued at Y. 20 and in some cases more than Y. 50, for a relatively small charge? . . . why’s It’s only natural that everybody, both rich and poor, should give us orders.” In the United States, those In the hat trade have been wont to draw <up contracts, specifying that “old hats must not be reutilised.” Accordingly on appropriate days each year, old hats have been gathered and burned. This may be all right In Its way, but to the Japanese mind it seems a criminal waste of money. In their country there is not a square Inch 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 pocketknives. waste rubber bounces again and is made into desk pads and tops, while woollen rags are Revitalised Into Blankets .iust as comfortable as the genuine article, into shirts which call for the trained eye of an expert to distinguish them from those made of real wool, and Into many other articles whose prices shock the markets of Euroj*• and America This motto of “ Waste not. want not." Is one of the reasons for the consternation Japan is causing the world of trade to-day.