Save waste paper: it is a weapon of war
Dark horizontal sheet showing a polka-dot wastebasket and an open box of paper, with a stream of paper trailing up toward three bombers in flight. The line 'IT IS A "WEAPON OF WAR"!' sits above the headline 'SAVE WASTE PAPER'. The paper is visually turned into aircraft, a transfer from the chore to the fighting.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1941
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. government salvage campaign (issuer not printed)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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 Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. government salvage campaign (issuer not printed). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1678 (NAID 515346).
Text on the object
IT IS A "WEAPON OF WAR"! SAVE WASTE PAPER [illegible: newsprint on the papers in the basket]
