NOVEL CHARITY PLAN.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5206, 21 November 1927, Page 3

NOVEL CHARITY PLAN.

MONEY FROM TRIFLES.

CAPSULES OF BOTTLES. About, £lO,OOO a year for charity ! If this were a clause in a will of a millionaires interested in South Africa what a sensation it woud produce, says a South African paper. The sum of £lO,OOO may well bo won for South African charities, and the method is ingenious but simple to a. degree. A careful inquiry leads to the belief that, givein proper organisation, there is almost a certainty that this desirable sum will be obtained. Simply, the proposition is that capsules from bottles, empty tooth paste tubes, cigarette tinfoil, etc., should be collected in a systematic manner and disposed of at market value, which is very considerable. The proceeds are to be devoted to deserving ch'arities.

It must have struck many people that, when they buy a bottle of liquor or a packet of cigarettes they have to buy a good deal more than actual spirits or tobacco. They pay not only for the convenience of the containers, but also for their decoration. There aie the coloured labels, the seals, and the wrappings. The production of the silver paper that keeps the cigarette airtight, and th© lead capsules that, show the cork in the bottle to be intact are little industries in themselves that keep ■many thousands of people employed. And what happens to the capsule and the paper ? They are torn off and ‘thrown away, w'ithout ever a thought being given to the trouble they cost to produce, or to the latent possibilities they might possess. This wasting of valuable material has occupied the mind of! Mr D. M. Lazarus, of Johannesburg, for the last nine months, and, after considerable thought and numerous experiments he has evolved a scheme not only for checking this waste; but for turning it to such account as will provide an annual income of about £lO,OOO for Johannesburg charities. SEVERAL SMALL PARCELS. Mr Lazarus went into the office) of the writer recently, carrying several small parcels. The first, contained a number of lead capsules from whisky bottles, and from his pocket he produced a small ingot of metal. “This metal,” he said, “is the capsules after smelting.” It was explained by Mr Lazarus how he had smelted down the capsules in a pot on an ordinary kitchen stove, and poured i.t off into a gold •mould. He had treated silver paper from cigarette boxes in a similar way, and had produced the slab he took from the second parcel. The third bar of metal he showed was more lustrous and more brittle than the others.

“Tooth paste tubes,” Mr Lazarus remarked laconically. “One tube alone gives a button of metal the size of a shilling.” Lead is worth about £3O a ton, tin has been valued at not far from £3OO, and the' silver paper metal -about £2OO a ton. One tooth paste tube, alone yields one-third of an ounce of almost pure tin. If half the population of the Transvaal would contribute one empty tooth paste tube a month a total of 1,000',000 oz of metal would accumulate in the course of a year. This represents nearly 30 tons, which is sold at £250, a figure much lower than the lowest market, rate for tin, would fetch the sum of £7,500 annually. Similarly, if 51b of bottle capsules are collected at the hotels, bars, bottle stores, and wholesale liquor merchants the yearly sale of the smeilted metal woud be another £lBOO. COLLECTION OF THE MATERIALS. Mr Lazarus wishes to interest. People; in his scheme to such an extent that they will save their capsules and tooth paste tubes and send them to some central depot for treatment. A central committee would be responsible for the sale of the resultant metals and for the distribution of the proceeds among deserving charities. The difficulty, of course, is in the collecting of the raw materials. Mr Lazarus has made a start himself by collecting a sackful of bottle capsules, and has ensured a regular supply from -most of the bars and hotels in Johhannesburg. He has also interested the Licensed Victuallers’ Association, and has been promised assistance from some of the big wholesale firms.

The Johannesburg Mayor has been given specimens of the metals, and has expressed his very keen interest in' the scheme. The South African Commercial Travellers’ Association has undertaken t.o give the scheme its utmost support, and through that body much material can be collected from the rural areas of the Transvaal, besides the publicity it could give the scheme through its large centres in the large centres in the rest of the Union. The private purchaser of whisky and wines must also be roped in. Collecting boxes at fixed places in the town have been suggested, similar to the, rubbish baskets in the. streets. Into these the capsules, silver paper, and tubes may be dropped by those who, have remembered to slip them into their pockets before, they go out. OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHILDREN. Most children at some time of their lives collect silver paper, and if th’s mania, of theirs could be well enough organised and centralised large quantities could bei amassed in quite a short time and the supply kept regular. Naturally they would have to be approached through the schools, or through such oiganisations as the Boy Scouts and the Girl Guides or Bands of Hope. If each school were a depot -much might be done not only to hiakei the scheme effective, but to inculcate in the young habits of thrift and a sense of value. The secretary of the Thrift Movement of South Africa (Mr Howcroft) has expressed his keen interest. His suggestion is that the raw materials should be bought from the children

at a nominal rate, and that the money they thus earn should be saved for them to help them pay for their education or to be a nest-egg for them when they leave school. “It is doubted, however,” says thei writer, “whether they would earn much in this way, and since they would not derive any immediate result from their trading their interest would probably soon wane. Strictly speaking, t.heir characters would be the better if-no system of rewards were in force, but competition could quite easily be fostered if prizes were awarded to those who collected the greatest quantity in a week or a month or a teym.”