By Chrissy Moore
If you asked me about my favorite herbs, you’d likely be surprised by my response. I tend to gravitate toward more obscure plants and topics in the herb world. My most recent herbal revelation is no exception.
One of my friends is a complete and total railroad aficionado. I love these kinds of people because they often have gems of obscure information at the ready for anyone willing to listen, and as a naturally inquisitive person myself, I am almost always a willing listener. Recently, this friend–I’ll call him James–was explaining to me the wheel systems on trains, pre-21st century. (I told you it was obscure, but I love it!). Midway through his explanation, he said, “And they packed the journal [part of the wheel system] with cotton waste, and…”
“Wait, what? What did you say? Cotton what?”
“Cotton waste. They’d soak it in oil, pack it under the journal, and the lubrication would help reduce friction between the journal and the wheel bearing.”
“What the heck is cotton waste?” (Clearly I was distracted from the main point of the conversation.)
“You know, scraps of cotton fabric or fiber or whatever.”
“Where did they get it? Did they just tear up old shirts or something? That’s a lot of old shirts for all the trains in the country!”
James cocked his head in response with a quizzical look on his face. I don’t think anyone had ever prodded him about this particular topic before. Leave it to me. Hah!
If you’re not involved in the textile industry in some way, as I am not, you may not be familiar with the term “cotton waste.” James’s wife, who is very familiar with cotton waste, she being a seamstress, intervened in the conversation and explained it to me. Essentially, it is the leftover scraps of fiber or fabric from clothes manufacturing or the like. As you might imagine, there’s a lot of it hanging around.
I was so excited to learn about this use of cotton–as obscure as it may be to most of us–because cotton (Gossypium hirsutum) is one of my favorite herbs! The fibers are used in so many applications, it’s hard to recount them all: from clothing (the obvious) to cotton swabs/balls to movie film cellulose (now a thing of the past); from cling film to its use in the food industry (cottonseed)… these are just a few examples. Talk about a jack-of-all-trades. And here was yet another use for this amazing plant: the inner workings of a train. Who knew?! James did, of course.
Because my interest was piqued–as any herbal nerd’s would be–I decided to dig a little deeper into cotton waste’s uses. The waste can be environmentally dodgy and potentially dangerous, since it’s basically
flammable material laying about (a whole other topic). But as it turns out, there are various companies and non-profit organizations that collect the waste–either the fabric or fiber–and recycle it into things like new garments, furniture, or housing insulation. (You gotta admire people’s ingenuity.) According to one insulation manufacturer, their insulation is fire-retardant, mold/mildew resistant, has no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), and has excellent noise-dampening qualities. While I cannot speak to the veracity of those claims, the mere idea that cotton fiber can be used in a different format, yet again, is a perfect example of what it means for a plant to be “herbal.”
Whether used for culinary purposes, for fragrance or medicine, or in this case, industrially, plants that give and give and give again rank high on my personal list. My thanks go out to James (and the many enthusiasts like him) for inadvertently introducing me to a new use for this hard-working herb. Next time someone asks me about my favorite plants, I now have a great herbal obscurity at the ready to share with any willing listeners!
Photo credits: 1) Train journal with cotton waste packing (Steve Smith, Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum); 2) Cotton waste (Artistic Fabric & Garment Industries); 3) ‘Mississippi Brown’ cotton boll, Gossypium hirsutum ‘Mississippi Brown’ (author’s photo); 4) Recycled cotton waste housing insulation (Bonded Logic).
Chrissy Moore is the curator of the National Herb Garden at the U.S. National Arboretum in Washington, DC. As steward of the NHG, Chrissy lectures, provides tours, and writes on various herbal topics, as well as shepherds the garden’s “Under the Arbor” educational outreach program. She is a member of the Potomac Unit of The Herb Society of America and is an International Society of Arboriculture certified arborist.
The Herb Society of America Blog 
Hi Belinda. Thanks for the question. In researching this, I learned that a number of colleges/universities do “drives,” but this is not country-wide, and there are specific non-profits that collect material, specifically old denim. One organization is Blue Jeans, Go Green (TM), which you can look up directly. Another site I looked at required membership with their non-profit before getting to a list of recyclers (figures!). Another site said that Patagonia, The North Face, and Columbia stores receive used cotton clothing, any brand, but those stores are not always available in all parts of the country. Zappos receives old jeans for recycling, but again, that’s specific to jeans, and you’re asking about scraps. So, my long answer is that I’m not entirely sure. It may depend on where you are in the country. Habitat for Humanity utilizes the recycled insulation, so I’m wondering if you can work backwards from the insulation manufacturer…yes, I know…too much work, probably! If you have a municipal waste/recycling facility near you, they may have some information, but I haven’t delved into that angle yet. I think this is a concept still in development in most areas of the country, so it may be a while yet before we see increased receiving sites around. I’m sorry for not having a more beneficial answer for you, but it has gotten me thinking a lot more about this topic!
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Thank you Chrissy for taking the time to research this and to answer my question. I’ll check out what is possibly available in my area.
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Do you know if there are any donation locations for people to drop off their fabric scraps? The only place that I am aware of is the Goodwill who accepts the remnants. Thanks for the interesting post.
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I recall traveling in Africa and seeing huge piles of old clothing in the markets. What the local people can’t use, they recycle or upcycle into another product. Not much goes to waste there. I do believe that Goodwill ships clothing they can’t sell or use to these countries.
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Thanks for that info, Maryann. Good “scrap” of info to add to the conversation!
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