Waste

[alatar]

Nice post, Findegil!

Originally Posted by Findegil

Thus it really makes sense that Tolkien named the dwarves as the most skilled iron and steel producer and as the most skilled street builders in Middle-Earth.

The dwarves may have had the most skill, and therefore the most efficient processes, but I don't think that they supplied all of the metalworks in Middle Earth.

The Rohirrim don't seem to like the Dwarves, and surely Sauron would have waylaid any arms shipments between the Lonely Mountain/Iron Hills/Blue Mountains and Denethor's realm if these were Gondor's only source.

Saruman equips his army in metal, and seemingly produces a lot of waste - then again, he didn't care so much. Anyway, his army was small compared to all of the armies that marched out of Minas Tirith, so even if Gondor has a clean process, there'd be some residue somewhere.

Maybe I'm looking for a place in Middle Earth that truly smells like home.

And the new Sandyman mill belched forth foul fumes - what exactly was going on inside?

But again, I think that Tolkien glosses over reality for the good guys - who don't pollute.

[Inziladun]

Originally Posted by alatar

Saruman equips his army in metal, and seemingly produces a lot of waste - then again, he didn't care so much. Anyway, his army was small compared to all of the armies that marched out of Minas Tirith, so even if Gondor has a clean process, there'd be some residue somewhere.

Honestly, I don't know a great deal about metal-working, but it seems that Saruman, having to start his warmaking capability basically from scratch, would have had a lot of smithying to do to arm his forces in a short period of time.
Gondor, on the other hand, was a well-established realm which had stood for thousands of years. I think it's likely a lot of the weapons and armour used by the Gondorians would have been products of older times, with especially the nobler families retaining swords as heirlooms.
As for the waste from what Gondor did produce, why not some underground storage facilities adjacent to the smithies in the City? Wouldn't that be sufficient to keep the stuff they couldn't recycle?

[Nogrod]

I think the question of quantity might play a major role here.

Looking at a modern industrial city's output of waste and comparing it to a plate- / weaponsmith or two somewhere might be a problematic thing.

I mean, yes modern processes are more efficient and less wasteful, but the quantities for industrial steel fex. are gigantic compared to any medieval (RL or phantasy) produce - maybe not counting Saruman's production?

[alatar]

I think that the number and output of the foundries is insignificant to today's capacity and production, yet Middle Earth's iron and steel (and other metal) production wasn't insignificant. You can't have Dagor Aglareb or War of the Last Alliance without some major weapon and armour production.

And what about tanneries?