In the national effort to conserve resources to win the war, none seems more impressive in Britain than the salvage schemes on the enormous waste which the country permitted during the piping times of peace, Many municipalities before the war had salvage plants which functioned somewhat casually, but the demands of war have converted this effort into an industry of great potentialities, Particularly in regard to paper is this evident. During the last war, the rescuing and conversion of rags and waste paper reached enormous proportions, but in the present war, to meet the increased emergency, it will undoubtedly be even greater. For instance, it was only recently remarked that while Britain was at war it was still importing waste paper thus, in a sense, wasting ship room which could well be utilized for more valuable commodities, although there is a big wastage of paper in the country. Like all systems of economies, it is not easy to balance every factor, and one of the strangest sights was when a group of Members of Parliament visited the largest paper board mill in the British Empire and found barges unloading huge quantities of old newspapers from Sweden and Germany. In this vast task of salvaging waste, especially in regard to paper, statistics become impressive. Six hundred corporations in the country now operate their salvage plants and the number is growing. It is pointed out that more than a million tons of paper a-year now wasted must be recovered, and half of this total is required for.the paper industry. Two million tons of paper and wood pulp are imported annually for the manufacture of paper and board, and the reduction of this amount of tonnage means that more food and other essential commodities may be imported without affecting the consumption sources.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.