WHAT IS WASTE? 



By Prof. R. C. Bryant 

 Yale School of Forestry 



In the April number of McClure's Magasine there appears an article 

 on "The Wealth in Waste," by Waldemar Kaempft'ert, editor of Popu- 

 lar Science Monthly. In a brief introduction the editor of McClure's 

 states that "no one in this country can write such popular business 

 talks." The article in question may possibly be regarded as popular, 

 but in so far as it treats of the waste problem in the lumber industry 

 it is inaccurate ; in fact, some statements are so palpably in error that 

 one is at a loss to understand from what source the author secured his 

 "facts." 



In speaking of pulp manufacture, he says : "Dozens of chemists have 

 endeavored to save money by devising ways of utilizing the liquors of 

 what is known as the 'sulphite process.' . . . As yet a commercially 

 practicable method has not been worked out." For some years chloro- 

 form, muriatic acid, lard substitutes, and road dressings have been a 

 by-product of at least some pulp mills. That it is both feasible and 

 profitable to utilize the waste liquor was long ago demonstrated and the 

 methods applied. 



In dealing with lumber manufacture, the author's conception of waste 

 is believed to be wrong, since it is not sound economically to regard as 

 "waste" that portion of the product which cannot be placed on the 

 market at a price sufficient to cover the cost of manufacture and sale. 

 It is a greater economic waste for a manufacturer to destroy capital in 

 this manner than it is to leave the product in question in the woods or 

 to burn it at the manufacturing plant. Much time and money have 

 been spent in experimental work, yet the ablest chemists of the country 

 have not yet told the lumbermen how they may profitably utilize much 

 of the wood refuse that is incident to the harvesting of forest crops. 



In discussing lumber manufacture, it is stated that "only 15 per cent 

 of the standing tree appears as finished lumber after the ax and saw 

 have done their work ; more than 65 per cent is left on the ground. 

 The money lost in the form of mill waste is far greater than the profit 

 made from salable lumber." 



Under no conditions that exist at the present time is it probable that 

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