Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
were hardly different than those that characterized the 18th century. As a conse-
quence, growth in the recycling sector can be considered an indicator of the spread
of the
rst wave of industrialization.
7.4 1870s
-
1960s
7.4.1 Industry and Agriculture Turn Their Backs on the City
From the 1870s onward, the doctrine that the recycling of by-products is a condition
of industrialization, food production and salubrity, was undermined by the mobi-
lization of new resources and raw materials.
Urban waste, responsible for the growth of many industrial branches, was
increasingly considered the limiting factor. This was the case for rags, whose
supply was insuf
cient to meet the industrial demand from the 1860s onward and
whose price continued to rise as a consequence. Paper manufacturers had little
control over wholesalers of rags and looked for vegetable-based substitutes to
escape these constraints. At
rst, straw and alfa were used and later, as a result of
work by the German papermaker Henri V
lter, wood.
35
Initially, both the new
types of pulp and rag pulp were used; later, at the end of the 19th century, rag pulp
was gradually replaced entirely. Use of the new pulp led to a tenfold increase in
world production between 1850 and 1890.
36
At the same time, market opportunities
for animal bones also declined. Sugar reners considered animal charcoal too
expensive and started to use activated charcoal (from plant sources) and mechanical
re
œ
ning. Plastic materials replaced bones for the manufacture of some objects:
celluloid,
rst developed in 1869 from cellulose and camphor to replace the ivory in
billiard balls, and later Bakelite, fabricated in 1907 from phenol and formol
(formaldehyde), both invented in the United States.
37
From Bakelite on, all plastic
materials were made from by-products of the coal and oil industries. As early as the
1860s, these gave rise to the dye industry and led to the demise of the Prussian blue
industry.
38
Electrical lighting was in use by the late 19th century in cities, thus
competing with stearic candles; vegetable glue and later synthetic glue replaced
animal glue;
sh gelatin took the place of bone gelatin. With refrigeration, large
slaughterhouses moved away from the cities and relocated closer to where animals
were being raised. This move led to the emergence of the powerful meat and bone
meal industry that utilized useless butchery by-products. The durability of this
35
Figuier (
1873
). See also: Andr
é
, op. cit.; Hills, op. cit.
36
Exposition universelle internationale de 1900
à
Paris. Rapports du jury international.
Introduction g
é
n
é
rale. Tome II. 3e partie: Sciences. 4e partie: Industrie. 1903. Paris: Imprimerie
nationale, p. 366.
37
Friedel (
1983
).
38
Bensaude-Vincent and Stengers (
2001
). (Trad. Bensaude-Vincent and Stengers
1996
).
