I Need Your Waste Paper
A shouting helmeted soldier, hands cupped to his mouth, calls out the headline 'I need your waste paper' above a list of military uses: shell containers, cartridge wads, mortar bomb carriers, demolition cartons, targets and mine components. The tell for transfer is the soldier's voice: the front-line figure's authority is lent to a household chore.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Supply (M.O.S.) salvage campaign; printed for H.M. Stationery Office by W. R. Royle & Son Ltd.
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- 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 (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Ministry of Supply / H.M. Stationery Office, printed by W. R. Royle & Son Ltd., c. 1939-1945. National Archives and Records Administration, NAID 44266670.
Text on the object
I need your WASTE PAPER PUT OUT YOUR WASTE PAPER FOR SALVAGE to make Shell Containers · Cartridge Wads Mortar Bomb Carriers · Demolition Cartons Targets · Interior Components for Mines etc. [small print:] Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by W. R. Royle & Son, Ltd., 51-3748 [small print:] M.O.S. S & R. 119
