Editing Recycling (section)

=== Wartime ===
[[File:Scrap^ Will Help Win. Don't Mix it - NARA - 533983.jpg|thumb|upright|American poster from [[World War II]]]]
[[File:INF3-196 Salvage Still more paper, rags, bones wanted for salvage Artist Gilroy.jpg|thumb|upright|British poster from [[World War II]]]]
[[File:Housewives!_Wage_War_on_Hitler_-_Save_-_DPLA_-_38319075b7298ab8ed2d9b792495f644.jpg|thumb|left|Poster from wartime [[Canada]], encouraging [[housewives]] to "salvage"]]
[[File:YorkWhipMaFence2.jpg|thumb|upright|Remnants of iron fence bars in [[York]] [[Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate]]. Such public property fences were sawed for the iron and recycled during [[World War II]].]]
New chemical industries created in the late 19th century both invented new materials (e.g. [[Bakelite]] in 1907) and promised to transform valueless into valuable materials. Proverbially, you could not [[wikt:make a silk purse of a sow's ear|make a silk purse of a sow's ear]]—until the US firm Arthur D. Little published in 1921 "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears", its research proving that when "chemistry puts on overalls and gets down to business [...] new values appear. New and better paths are opened to reach the goals desired."<ref>{{cite web |url = https://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/purse/ |title = Report: "On the Making of Silk Purses from Sows' Ears," 1921: Exhibits: Institute Archives & Special Collections: MIT |website = mit.edu  |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160603063316/http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits/purse/ |archive-date = 3 June 2016 |url-status = dead }}</ref>

Recycling—or "salvage", as it was then usually known—was a major issue for governments during [[World War II]], where financial constraints and significant material shortages made it necessary to reuse goods and recycle materials.<ref name=PBS>{{cite web |work = Public Broadcasting System |date=2007 |title = The War Episode 2: Rationing and Recycling |url = https://www.pbs.org/ |access-date = 7 July 2016 |archive-date = 23 February 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110223211759/http://www.pbs.org/ |url-status = live }}</ref> These resource shortages caused by the [[world war]]s, and other such world-changing events, greatly encouraged recycling.<ref>{{Cite periodical | title= Out of the Garbage-Pail into the Fire: fuel bricks now added to the list of things salvaged by science from the nation's waste | magazine= [[Popular Science]] monthly | date= February 1919 | pages= 50–51|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50 |publisher=Bonnier Corporation|language=en|archive-date=20 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230220183150/https://books.google.com/books?id=7igDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA50|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=PBS /> It became necessary for most homes to recycle their waste, allowing people to make the most of what was available. Recycling household materials also meant more resources were left available for war efforts.<ref name=PBS /> Massive government campaigns, such as the [[Paper Salvage 1939–50|National Salvage Campaign]] in Britain and the [[Salvage for Victory]] campaign in the United States, occurred in every fighting nation, urging citizens to donate metal, paper, rags, and rubber as a patriotic duty.