The opinion prevails in certain quarters that the present wave of interest in the scientific reclamation of waste is merely ephemeral. Doubtless this feeling prevails because of the extreme length to which the fetish of cheapness and extravagance had carried us and which shortcomings appeared to be so firmly ingrained as to form part of the British character. To a certain degree prevailing high prices are certain to persuade us to pay closer regard to this issue than has heretofore been the case. Nevertheless, the longer such abnormal conditions obtain the more impressed shall we become of the wealth to be won from waste. They will compel us to strive to extract the utmost from the raw material placed in our hands. They will induce us to become more and more reluctant to discard a material after we have secured all apparent worth which it appears to be capable of yielding, from the fear that the ultimate residue may still contain something of potential value which we have not succeeded in discovering. While, doubtless, the gradual relapse of conditions to the normal will exercise the effect of causing us to pay decreasing regard to the value of the wastes, it is to be hoped that, by the time such a stage has been reached, we shall have become so powerfully impressed with the potentialities of residues as to continue to exploit them instinctively. If such be the case we shall find ourselves in the position of being better armed for the coming commercial struggle with Germany, to whom waste has brought extraordinary wealth in the past. Thus equipped we should be able to meet a remorseless and clever commercial antagonist on more than level terms. Of one thing we may rest assured. Germany, past-master in the art of exploiting wastes, will exert herself far more strenuously in this field in the future than she has ever done before. Economic considerations will compel her to keep her foreign purchases of raw materials down to the irreducible minimum and to force her sales abroad to the absolute maximum in order to secure the rehabilitation of her trade balance. To consummate this end she will leave no stone unturned to exploit her refuse of every description to the full. No one knows more than Germany what can be done with the so-called rubbish-heap, and no other country is more cognizant of the fact that the industrial exploitation of waste creates wealth. So it behoves us to keep a tight hand upon our residues from household, office, and factory, and to exploit them ourselves to our own financial and economic advantage. THE END _Printed in Great Britain by_ UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON Transcriber’s Notes Obvious errors in punctuation have been fixed. Page 12: “preparation of magarine” changed to “preparation of margarine” Page 38: “aggreeable surprise” changed to “agreeable surprise” Page 44: “authorities succintly” changed to “authorities succinctly”