Waste

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Been reading about the history of steel production in Europe. Names like Huntsman, Krupp, Schneider and Armstrong might be familiar. What was striking to me is that, you don't even have to go all the way back to "Damascus steel" to find people creating iron and steel in what we might consider very primitive conditions; almost in the backyard shed, one might say. Truly amazing, considering that many of us today would be at a loss constructing a simple tool out of wood and stone.

I live in the rusted remains of one of America's steel towns. Most of the mills (or 'works,' as some of you might say) are gone, replaced by strip malls made from imported steel. There's still a coke works (coal is transformed into coke, which is used to make steel) in operation, though not running at the capacity that it was during my youth (plus they've cleaned the place up a bit). Yet, when I see the works, especially at night, I cannot help but think of Mordor.

With the right wind we can smell the waste products of the furnaces, and there's always a black dust coating my world in the morning.

The elves, dwarves and men of Middle Earth made things of iron and steel. The Enemy (pick one) did as well. We know what the Dark Ones did with all of their industrial waste.

What did the others* do with theirs?

*I'll even grant that the elves and dwarves used some type of process that produced no waste, or that the waste products were carried away and dropped into volcanoes by friendly winged balrogs. But men?