soap was heretofore considered useless and was simply discarded significant amounts of waste result in higher product costs especially in view of the fact that high grade chrysotile asbestos which is preferably used in dispersion processes is a limited resource moreover since inhalation of asbestos dust is considered as harmful to humans suitable precautions must be taken in the disposal of the waste thus further increasing production costs the present invention is particularly suitable for use in connection with strands yarns and sheets of asbestos waste containing a precipitated fatty acid soap the types of soaps commonly used in a dispersion process are soluble salts of fatty acids such as sodium potassium or ammonium stearate linoleate elaidate linolenate or oleate although others may be employed as described in u s pat no 2 626 213 the primary criteria is that the soap or surface active agent is initially water soluble and can be converted into insoluble form by reaction with di or trivalent heavy metal ions such as calcium zinc magnesium or aluminum the waste asbestos to be reconverted is preferably free of foreign materials that would be reactive with the reagents used in the recovery process yarn containing a wire insert for example would not be suitable for conversion although the presence of relatively short fibers or fillers of unreactive materials such as carbon graphite or glass would not be detrimental to the recovery process in accordance with the present invention a batch of the waste asbestos containing the precipitated soap is first mixed with a dilute inorganic acid such as sulfuric hydrochloric or nitric the waste asbestos is preferably intimately mixed with the acidic water solution in order to convert the water insoluble heavy metal salt into a water insoluble organic acid and to.