Garbage wool

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Garbage wool is a material made from household waste that should serve as a base material for paper, cardboard or insulating panels. The process for the production of garbage wool was developed in the 1910s by the Berlin engineer Kurt Gerson, but could not establish itself on the market. Gerson tried to sort out substances containing fibers and cellulose (rags, paper, straw) from household waste. These were similar in texture to raw cotton and were intended to be used for the production of paper, cardboard, insulating material, film, rayon, explosives and similar materials.

Gerson had developed various methods to separate the appropriate components from the unsuitable components of household waste. In the case of the air flow method, an air flow separated waste components of different mass, in two other methods the waste was separated into brittle or fibrous substances. One beater mill processed brittle substances into powder and was supposed to bind fibrous substances together without destroying them, the other, older, attempted a similar separation with the help of a combination of mill and shaker. While the fibers should be processed into garbage wool, the resulting powder should be channeled onto the fields. Overall, he managed to process around 11% of the household waste into garbage wool.

From 1925, Gerson tried to produce garbage wool on an industrial scale in the converted Schöneberg waste incineration plant in Berlin-Schöneberg . First attempts with 40 to 50 tons of processed garbage per day were successful, and led to inquiries from other cities, and also attracted attention abroad. While the operation can still be proven until 1939, details about the end of the Berlin waste wool production are not known.

Remarks

  1. ^ A b Sonja Windmüller: The other side of things. LIT Verlag, Münster 2004, ISBN 3-8258-7517-2 .
  2. ↑ a b Olaf Stellberger: Red Island garbage site in Schöneberg: Experimental field for modern garbage. In: Susanne Köstering, Renate Rüb (eds.): Yesterday's rubbish ?: an environmental history exploration in Berlin and Brandenburg. Waxmann Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1258-7 , p. 134.
  3. ↑ Science: Sow's Ear Silk . In: TIME. January 9, 1927.
  4. ^ Olaf Stellberger: Rote Insel garbage location in Schöneberg: Experimental field for modern garbage. In: Susanne Köstering, Renate Rüb (eds.): Yesterday's rubbish ?: an environmental history exploration in Berlin and Brandenburg. Waxmann Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1258-7 , p. 125.
  5. ↑ a b Yesterday's trash ?: an environmental historical exploration in Berlin and Brandenburg. Waxmann Verlag, 2003, ISBN 3-8309-1258-7 , p. 135.
  6. ^ Robert E. Martin: Making Money Out of Scraps. In: Popular Science. January 1928, p. 134.