We Want Your Kitchen Waste
A smiling, winking cartoon pig rests a trotter on a dustbin lid tagged 'Pig Food' beneath the headline 'We want your kitchen waste'. The small-print rules and 'Your council will collect' make the request a routine household chore, and the friendly animal stands in for the government asking (plain-folks).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- His Majesty's Stationery Office (government salvage campaign); artist John M. Gilroy; printer Fosh & Cross Ltd, London
- 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
- Theme
- Home front
- 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)
His Majesty's Stationery Office; artist John M. Gilroy; printer Fosh & Cross Ltd, c. 1939-1945. U.S. National Archives, RG 44.
Text on the object
We want your KITCHEN WASTE PIG FOOD KEEP IT DRY, FREE FROM GLASS, BONES, TINS, ETC. IT ALSO FEEDS POULTRY... YOUR COUNCIL WILL COLLECT PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY FOSH & CROSS LTD., LONDON. 51-2070. [signature in the artwork:] Gilroy
