‘We Want Everybody’s Salvage!’: Recycling, Voluntarism, and the People’s War

This article reveals the role of volunteers in the British government’s campaign to increase recycling during the Second World War. It argues that the overlooked experience of these volunteers can be used to the deconstruct the idea of a people’s war. Drawing on a range of underused archival sources, the article suggests that this concept remains an important frame of reference, albeit one that was invoked in various ways. It demonstrates that voluntary recycling schemes were led from the bottom-up, shifted the balance of power between private citizens and local authorities, and highlighted difference based on age, socio-economic status, gender, and geographical location. The article concludes that official appeals may have invoked the ‘people’s war’, but the way they were received was of most importance.