WEALTH FROM WASTE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 804, 26 October 1929, Page 32

WEALTH FROM WASTE

“RESTAR” COAL TAR PRODUCTS

Wealth out of waste is the slogan of the coal tar products business which, with the help of the public, could be made a most profitable department of New Zealand’s industrial life. From the waste of our big gas works can be made such widely different and useful articles* as disinfectant, paint, creosote, flaked naphthalene and road binders. ~- This industry, although first developed in Germany, has been strongly established in New Zealand by the firm of Restar, Ltd., and indirectly brings wealth to everyone in the community. $

Disinfectant, for example, is at present imported here from Japan, Germany, Australia and England, but the Restar people are producing a disinfectant quite the equal to any of the ordinary household lines and at a much lesser price. There is therefore no reason why any household should ask for an imported disinfectant.

In addition, the Restar Company are about to embark on the manufacture of a very high grade Lysol, and are aiming at producing an article superior to anything coming into the country. In both of these lines the local product is the best, by chemical test of clarity, contents, and general appearance.

In bituminous paint the Restar product is a fine Q.D. paint,. leaving a glossy finish. It is absolutely anticorrosive and the only thing for tin roof and iron metal work. Over 900 gallons of this paint was used on one building recently—the Challenge Phosphate Company’s works at Otahuhu. The Auckland Tramways use nothing else for under-carriage work. Further, it is valuable to know that this local paint is 25 pe.r cent, to 30 per cent, cheaper than the imported. Creosote is recognised throughout the world as the standard protection for timber. Every foot of timber used in America is creosoted, and strange though it may seem the Restar people in New Zealand have been asked by American firms for quotations. Perhaps the greatest use of coal tar products is in road preparations, such as far-sealed roads, also for paths, tennis courts and so on.

"Tar Mac,” a Restar product, is mixed asphalt tar and metal chips, which can be put down by anyone, as it requires no heat and no mixing. These varied products are only a few of the many lines produced by these wonderful processes. The Resta.r company are in a very large way in New Zealand, having five plants—at Auckland, Gisborne, Wanganui, Wellington and Lyttelton.