Salvage Steward Badge

In Europe, the Second World War was an intense period of ‘salvage’ – the word for recycling at the time. Every material was carefully used and reused for the war effort. Cardboard, paper, rags, bones, kitchen waste, metal and rubber were collected and later reused or transformed. The situation was particularly critical in Great Britain, an island that suffered from severe restrictions on imports of materials from abroad. The British Ministry of Supply introduced the National Salvage Scheme in December 1939. The Home Front – the citizens that were not on the battlefield – was particularly targeted by the propaganda campaigns. To help maximise the salvaging, badges were designed to mobilise and motivate the collectors. They were a reward for the best collectors, who proudly displayed them, and a way to monitor who was acting as a good citizen. At least 350 000 badges were issued. Adults had badges in different colours – red for stewards appointed by local authorities, blue for those in offices and shops and green for those in factories. A special badge comprising a cog in a wheel was made for children and teenagers as part of the Cogs scheme launched for children in 1940. Despite the broad effort to salvage at every level of society, the results of the National Salvage Scheme were mixed. For instance, the amount of collected materials fluctuated throughout the year, in particular during winter. Reusing material was also complicated because of the war – it later appeared that the excess metal collected had been dumped into the Thames Estuary.

Inscription Position: recto Salvage Steward