NEW GOODS FROM OLD

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 10

NEW GOODS FROM OLD

NOTHfIM! WASTED IN JAPAN PMTfMANHC PLATES TURNED WTO MIRRORS What becomes of ordinary corks used in bottles? asks the ‘China Digest. Nine times out of 10 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 £ i ;g al , h f Tt wife or maid, they mav be kept for a time, but even then they are ,™rown away after serving twice or thnee, ana that is the end of them. But not in Japan. _ The world consuming demana 101 cork is enormous; the indications are that the supply will soon fall short ot requirements; and cork products are expensive. And the Japanese know it. ' £-ery 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, lo the powder thus obtained an adhesive is added, and the mixture is put into m in d time these used corks, are tastefully displayed in shops and markets in the" form of sandal-soles, canteenoovers, and stoppers bathroom mats, etc., etc. Then you buy these sandalsoles, canteen covers, and stoppers, bathroom mats, etc., etc., and come home boasting how cheaply you managed to procure them (the whole lob for only a few sen, my dear!) not 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 you 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 find two edges instead ot one you can be sure that your mirror is made from a pair of used photographic plates. . Ordinarily mirrors are expensive to make. They cannot be sold to the public at a much cheaper price than those manufactured out of Japan. 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 yos have your mirror made from a pair ot used photographic plates and costing two sen. , , ~ . The reason for the double edge is that the plates are not as a rule thicker than 9 mm. Therefore, in order to obtain the desired thickness, two plates are put together, or even three when mirrors for women are to be manufacPeople who have passed through Japan say: “They sell their mirrors at 'lees 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 photographic plates. When a foreign wife asks her hus- ’ band what to do with her cast-off dress, he sometimes inquires as to what 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 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 skah, 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, it’s only natural that everybody, both rich and poor, should give us orders.” This industry, which makes something new from nothing, is a practical illustration of the adage “• From rags to riofaos.” 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 erf 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 toys, while the export of woolIbn rags as these are revitalised into blankets just as comfortable as the genuine article, into shirts which call for the trained eye of an expert to distinguish them from those made from real wool, and into many ether articles whoso prices shock the markets of Europe and America. This motto of “ Waste not, want , not ” is one of the reasons for the consternation. Japan is causing in the world of trade to-day-