AVOID WASTE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 168, 15 June 1940, Page 6

AVOID WASTE.

The British public have been encouraged for some months past to avoid.waste in any form. Always a sound precept it is an imperative duty to-day. Advice has been given to housewives and others on the salvage of materials and a task of national importance is being undertaken to save what would otherwise be destroyed. A few weeks ago the island of Bermuda sent Britain enough' scrap metal to build a substantial ship. This striking example of the value of salvage must impress itself upon everyone’s mind. Recently the Institute of Public Cleansing, when meeting in Manchester, was reminded by an official of the Ministry of Supply that recent events have made the saving of one commodity not only desirable but imperative. This refers to paper, supplies of which have been most adversely affected by the Nazi occupation of Norway and the sinking of neutral ships carrying wood pulp. Calculations show that Britain has been recovering little more than five per cent, of paper destroyed and at least 25 per cent, should be collected for re-pulping, giving a yield _of 250,000 tons a year. Commenting on this the Manchester Guardian observes that a good a turn-out of any household would produce other materials to make a yaluable contribution to essential supplies, such as metals off all kinds, glass, and textile fabrics. In Britain progressive authorities are engaged in this work of salvage and what is being done there should find a. counterpart in this and other* British Dominions. An appeal lias been made by the Minister of Supply to eliminate'waste as a national obligation and consideration should follow as a matter of duty. At. the same tim'e he stresses the impoitance of salvaging waste articles now on farms, in homes, and m factories to nrovide raw material for new production. The wisdom of the appeal must be realised/y everyone.