WEALTH FROM WASTE.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 2789, 28 May 1921, Page 3

WEALTH FROM WASTE.

A PROFITABLE SALVAGE

An official statement regarding the operations ol the British Government corporation, known ms National Waste Products, sot up by the National Salvage Council under the auspices of Cord luverforth when he was Survey-or-General of Supply at the War Office, was issued recently. It idiowis that a net profit of £12,218 was realised for the State. Tlie- functions of the National Salvajgei Dcjpai j witarej principally educative and advisory, having for their object the prevention of waste and the utikisaition of was.be material, i.e., material which was being wasted by neglect or destroyed in ignorance that it could be turned to useful purposes. The object of National Waste Products, which took over the plant and operations of a. smaller War Office organisation (Army "Waste Products, Ltd.), already established, for the purpose of treating cook-liouse and mesjs-room residues, was, to enlarge the is cope of operations, and further to demonstrate not only tliait valuable by-products could be recovered from; material which had hi then to been considered of little or no value, but that such recovery was. commercially profitable over a. wide range of material. Instead of being destroyed as had hitherto been tlie case an many instances, grain, sweepings, bacon, condensed milk, dried fruits, biscuits, chocolate, beans, etc., which had become unfit for human food were specially treated, and large quantities of valuable by-products, such as fatie (used by son pm ak or s), glycerine (for explosives), pig and poultry food, fertilisers, etc., were recovered art a time when {they, were lufrgeMly ' (needed, quite apart from the profit of over £42,000 which incidentally secured to the State in tlie process. The National Waste Products organisation. was run on commercial lines by a board of directors, several of whom were technical experts, under the chairmanship of Sir James LeighWood. The whole of its plant, including what it took over from Army Waste Products, Ltd., was paid for out of profits. Ab the corporation was merely a. war-time organisation, it has ceased to function as a Government organisation, but the work it stimulated is istill being carried on by municipal and private enterprise, and in all Army camps the systematic collection of cook-house residues and table scraps is not. only encouraged, hut has become a matter of routine.