Ragpickers would remove buttons from rags, too. Has anyone studied
the ragpicking industry?

"Button banks" are a common feature of old paper mills, for example.
During the rag-paper era, the typical paper mill would macerate a
huge amount of used cotton and linen waste.  Buttons would be removed
by low-paid (i.e. female) workers and discarded as near as possible.

While today's wood-pulp paper mills would not leave button banks, the
recycling of rags has never stopped. Of course, there are surviving
rag paper manufacturing operations today.  Paper mills that supply
the vulcanized fibre industry still use rag, which may or may not
include post-consumer rags. See the NVF company web site for this
oldest of plastic-making processes.

If I recall correctly, the bales of rags my grandfather bought for
[the rare cleaning of] his machine shop were button-free, too.
Somebody must have been in the business of taking  buttons off. Wool
and silk could be used for wipe rags, but not for papermaking.

Of course, polyesters are not recyclable in the paper industry.

Before toilet paper was introduced, little bits of cloth were used
for personal wipes. So we must assume that buttons were removed. This
operation probably took place at home.

I know of one Augustinian priory where some of little bits of cloth
included gold threads, obviously from vestments. Must have scratched.
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