As a rule any waste of this character from industry is regarded with contempt by the approved specialists in waste collection--the itinerant merchant or the marine store dealer. Both these traders prefer to conduct their operations with approved straight and unadulterated materials. If the waste happens to be of the combined character, they realize that they must expend a certain amount of time and labour in its separation before carrying out its sale to advantage. As they are not inclined towards such exertion they refuse to accept the residue. It is a foolish policy and one which directly reacts against their own interests. Such combined waste can generally be procured at a trifling figure. The factory in which it accrues cannot afford the labour or time necessary to bring about the separation of the constituents. Yet when separation is completed each class of material at once attains its true value. Resolution of combined waste into its components does not involve any skill, while it is immaterial how roughly the task is performed. The merchants to whom allusion has been made will also spurn waste of undoubted market value if it has been dressed or impregnated with another substance. They will jump at rags no matter how soiled and loathsome their appearance. They know the dirt can be removed readily and cheaply, but they never pause to reflect that substances used for impregnating textiles may be eliminated just as easily. Moreover, unlike dirt, the recovered dressing may possess a distinct commercial value in itself. Waxed flannel is a recognized commodity, and, in fabricating articles therefrom, appreciable quantities of trimmings are obtained. One firm was in a quandary as to the disposal of this waste. No rag-and-bone merchant would touch it. The firm was quite prepared to sell the refuse at a low figure, fully confident that it could be turned to some profitable purpose. The material was investigated, and the separation of the wax from the woollen base was found to offer no supreme or expensive difficulty. Yet the extraction of the wax made all the difference in the intrinsic worth of the waste. At that time the de-waxed flannel fetched 85s.--$21.25--a hundredweight, while the wax, which was a high-grade product, was also of distinct value because it was available for re-use. A similar problem cropped up in connection with oil-skin trimmings resulting from the manufacture of garments and other articles. The factory concerned stated that the waste was somewhat pronounced from the magnitude of its business, but what to do with it was beyond their knowledge. Experiment proved the separation of the oil to be an easy matter, and so the release of the cotton textile was secured. In the degreased form the trimmings fetched from 50s. to 60s.--$12.50 to $15--a hundredweight at the time, while the oil was also a valuable by-product and was readily absorbed by industry at a favourable figure.