WHAT WAS WASTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 4, 4 July 1940, Page 13

WHAT WAS WASTED

IS NOW AVAILABLE

RECLAMATION SCHEME

There is no reason to suppose that New Zealanders' as a whole are wilfully wasteful, but a large part of what is annually wasted in the Dominion would, if preserved and scientifically converted, represent a very large sum. In future, however, there is to be no waste, as far as can be helped. The Government will see to it that what has hitherto been regarded as. waste material is to be collected, and all that can be reconditioned in any way for future service will do its part in winning the war.

Much of the food at present wasted might no doubt be used for pig and chicken feed, but it is not this kind of waste so much as those multitudinous things which are generally thrown away as being useless with which the Government is concerned. There is scrap metal of various kinds, old pots and pans, certain grades of paper and office refuse, rags—all these things have .their uses if reconditioned, and the body set up by the Minister of Supply (the Hon. D. G. Sullivan) to deal with the problem is the National Council for the Reclamation of Waste Material. Mr. Charles Todd is chairman of it, and its other members are Messrs. E. A. Batt. J. W. Collins, J. M. A. Ilott, J. R. Middleton, and J. Read. During the last, fortnight they have been reviewing the position, and a scheme to cover the whole of the Dominion has been worked out.

New Zealand has been subdivided into eleven zones, and each zone will have its own provincial board, which will sit in the'chief. towns. The boards will be appointed by the city councils iri the cities and the "co.unty. councils in the rural districts, that being done by the" local body concerned calling a meeting of representative citizens for the purpose. If necessary, other com-, mittees will be formed to control outlying districts (to be responsible to the provincial boards), so that the1 whole of the rural and urban area of the country will be covered.

The waste materials required will be set out in a. circular to be supplied to all boards, with, full particulars as to method ■of collection. It will be necessary for boards, to co-opt school teachers and school children, Boy Scouts, Girl' Guides, young farmers,, and others to engage in the work of collecting and bringing the result of their labours to certain points where they can be gathered up and sent, on to the factories that dealt with' such material.

The council agreed with the Minister that those already in the waste material trade should in no way be interfered with.

Members of the council are to visit other .centres within the next few days to explain any details of the scheme. Mr.' Todd, the chairman, will visit Christchurch and Dunedin. •