Save Waste Paper - it is used for AMMUNITION and other vital needs
Two helmeted soldiers man a mounted machine gun beneath the slogan 'Save Waste Paper - it is used for AMMUNITION and other vital needs'. The weapon imagery lends the soldiers' standing to a household chore (transfer), and the text names only the military use of paper while not saying how much of the collected paper that is (card-stacking).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1940
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Public Information, for the National Salvage Office, Ottawa, under the Minister of National War Services (J. G. Gardiner)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- Canada
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Mackenzie King Government
- Leader
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Canadian Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired; no URAA restoration)
Public Information for the National Salvage Office (Canada), c. 1940-1945. U.S. National Archives, Record Group 44.
Text on the object
Save WASTE PAPER - it is used for AMMUNITION and other vital needs GET IN TOUCH WITH YOUR LOCAL COMMITTEE ISSUED BY PUBLIC INFORMATION, FOR NATIONAL SALVAGE OFFICE, OTTAWA; UNDER AUTHORITY OF HON. J. G. GARDINER, MINISTER OF NATIONAL WAR SERVICES.
