HC Deb 30 January 1948 vol 446 cc205-7W
Mr. Edelman

asked the President of the Board of Trade what steps are being taken to ameliorate the present severe shortage of paper and paper-making material.

Mr. H. Wilson

There is a grave short-age of all types of paper and paper-making materials. This applies to printing and writing papers as well as to packaging materials needed both for goods for export and for food distribution in the home markets and to boards for building purposes. We have suffered difficulties in obtaining supplies. The dollar shortage and increased prices have forced us to cut our purchases from North America. At the same time supplies from Scandinavia have been reduced as a result of production difficulties, partly due to the after-effects of the war, and of the freezing up of the rivers at a low level after prolonged drought.

To make the best use of available supplies we must take every step possible both to save and to salvage paper. Every economy in all forms of paper consumption is necessary and to help to achieve this the Government has already taken several measures to save paper. Licences for the supply of paper generally have been reduced and cuts have already been made in supplies for newsprint, in paper for advertising circulars, and in the paper for football pools. The present rate of paper allocations, moreover, does not allow the use of paper for wrapping when this can be avoided. I do not propose to use compulsion to achieve saving in this direction. To do so would involve the use of additional staffs which our present manpower shortage does not permit. We are, however, seeking to save wrapping paper largely on a voluntary basis with the co-operation of industry and the public.

At the same time we must salvage as much waste paper as is humanly possible and for two particularly important reasons. The paper and board mills making paper and board for export packaging and for food cartons and containers require greatly increased supplies of waste paper which is one of their principal raw materials. In addition, our newspapers and many other users of paper are seriously short of supplies. There is an urgent need for an additional 200,000 tons of paper-making materials a year. This quantity is fortunately available in this country in the form of waste paper and if every home could save an extra pound of waste paper each week, we should meet this need. It is known, however, that very large quantities of waste paper are either being burnt or lost by being thrown into dustbins with the household refuse.

I appeal, therefore, to local authorities, to industrialists and to the public to take every step possible to salvage waste paper. I realise that local authorities often lack the transport, the equipment and the labour necessary to do a completely efficient job. It is not possible to provide satisfactory collections everywhere, and in some areas, chiefly rural, collection is hard to organise and in others it inevitably involves a loss. I appeal, however, to all local authorities who can do so to ensure as efficient collections as possible.

Wherever such collections are made housewives should save as much waste paper as possible and put it out for collection. By doing so they will be acting in their own interests. They will be assisting the export drive and so indirectly helping to increase the quantity of food and raw materials brought into this country, and they will be assisting the distribution of food inside the country by enabling it to be properly packed.