A VERY CURIOUS EXHIBITION.

Taranaki Daily News, 27 May 1933, Page 10 (Supplement)

A VERY CURIOUS EXHIBITION.

WASTE PUTS PEOPLE OUT OF WORK People were attracted to a very unusual show not long ago in Paris, and we hope it taught many of them a lesson. It was an Exhibition of Waste, arranged by the metal manufacturers of France. At the entrance a series of posters set one thinking, for they asked such questions as: “Have you two consciences, a home one for saving and a factory one for wasting ?” On others were written: “There are not small economies; there is economy. A chief who lets himself be absorbed by details wastes his time. The taxes paid to the State are heavy; the contributions made to waste are overwhelming.” One soon left the realm of theory to enter that of fact. In the hall were proofs, quickly realised by the visitor, of the appalling amount of waste going on in the world.

One large counter was spread with things of value which had been picked out of the wastepaper baskets of a single office in one week. Among them were an incredible number of pencil ends, pieces of indiarubber, blotting-paper, envelopes, and so on, each telling its own story to the visitor.

A typist had written one word on a sheet of paper. This had been reproduced by carbons on five copies, but then the girl had decided to write something else. She would not take the trouble to rub out the word six times, so she crumpled up all the sheets of white paper, and even the carbons, and threw them away. Another counter showed waste in a workshop and hundreds of ways in which objects of all kinds might have been saved and put to good use. One of these was a tin plate covered with round holes; the pieces punched out had been used as bottoms for cans of preserved fruit. If the holes had been cut nearer together, instead of being scattered at random, this plate would have supplied about five more bottoms.

It was also shown how a piece of broken glass can often be made of use if cut into a smaller pane. Many employers and workmen who visited the exhibition must have learned the lesson that much everyday waste can be remedied simply by the honesty of the workman. Many visitors were made to realise that waste leads to an increase of the cost price and the selling price, and so to a decrease of sales and more unemployment.