CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 124, 3 September 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

UTILISATION OF WASTE PRODpCTS. A few months ago the Taranaki Petroleum Company offered to let anyone have the waste oil material for the carting away. No one bothered. Today this material forms the fuel that provides the power for working the machinery at No. 3 bore. It looks valueless, but mixed with a small amount of coal, it gives tremendous heat, and has proved a most valuable fuel. During the last three or four years a great deal of gas has been emitted from the bores, but no one thought ot utilising it for power until Mr. Keith came on the scene and harnessed it. The fuel bill in connection with No. 2 and No. 1 bores is now nil. Wliat to do with waste material, such as old jam tins, empty match boxes, sawdust and other waste products, has exercised the ingenuity of economical minds for many years. In America and Germany the treatment of by-products has latterly been reduced to a fine art or an exact science, and old jam tins, hitherto consigned to the TUibbish-tip, are converted into toys and other articles of commercial value. The Adelaide Municipal Council has hit on an idea that not only has economic advantages, but will also relieve the landscape of the unsightly litter of rubbish indiscriminately scattered about by householders. It has installed a compressor in connection with its refuse destructor for ramming old' tins into a solid block. The tins are separated from the general rubbish that comes in and are placed in an iron cylinder about 2ft Gin in diameter and Gft deep. Then, by means of an hydraulic press, they are in the course ot five minutes reduced to a solid block 6in thick. The plant has been in operation for about a month, and already some 20 tons of compressed tins are stored in the bulk store department, awaiting (if not sold locally) export to Germany, where there is a'ready sale for the commodity. By an electric process the tin is separated from iron, and the iron is then treated for other purposes. Experiments in the conversion of what are regarded as waste products need not be confined to jam tins. Saw mills in the country are in some places almost obscured by heaps of sawdust, and it has actually been found cheaper to remove the mill than to scatter the accumulations of sawdust. The quantity of , sawdust used for packing and other purposes is infinitely less than the total supply, and it is not unreasonable to suggest that some process of conpressing sawdust into blocks suitable for street paving could be discovered.

THE VALUE OF RUBBISH. The French system of utilising waste material is characteristic of a thrifty people. Take household refuse. The rubbish is collected from iron cans at the doors of the homes, and is conveyed in waggons and barges to private establishments which purchase it at.a low price. Up to that stage it is exposed to the operations of the "rag-pickers/ who make their livings by the collection and sale of rags, paper, bottles aid such articles. The rubbish is landed from the barges on whaTves and is searched for rags, bones, paper, tin cans, metal, glass, oyster shells, and other things that are accounted of value. The tins are used for the manufacture of toys. The rough bones provide glue, and the finer ones are turned into knife handles,' buttons, dominoes and dice. Oyster shells.are turned into powder and used to make food for poultry. The rags, paper, metal and] glass all command a ready market among various manufacturers. The re'maining portion of the rubbish, which [Consists mainly of ashes and vegetable refuse, is pulverised and sold to farmers as a fertiliser. Owing to its high percentage of potash it is too strong to be used alone, and it is therefore mixed with barnyard manure. A carload ot the preparation, weighing from six to ten tons, is sold at from £1 to £1 10s, and the whole supply is used within a radius of about thirty miles of Paris. The companies which handle the rubbish are prosperous concerns. Occasionally, of course, the collectors come across lost articles such as tableware, jewellery and even money, and if the goods are of any considerable worth some attempt is made to find the owners. The Freneh people have a remarkable talent for economy in every walk of life. ' The dust collected from stores, offices and dwelling-houses is considered a highclass fertiliser, and is sold at about £2 a ton. The use of a destructor for the disposal of rubbish would be regarded as sinfully wasteful.