Fort George G. Meade: The First 100 Years

Salvage for Victory
"Salvage For Victory" doesn’t sound much like a recycling
ad, though in a roundabout way, it was. During WWI and
WWII, recycling was common practice and was done
with great enthusiasm. WWII ad campaigns like "Salvage
For Victory" and "America needs your scrap SCRAP
RUBBER" rallied Americans to collect their tin cans,
scrap metal, bottles, waste fats, rubber, silk, papers–all
to support and sustain the war effort. Patriotism was the
motivation behind recycling. It enabled Americans on the
home front to do their part while the soldiers were fighting
abroad. Though it was done for a different purpose, it was
still recycling.
At the time of war, mass-produced consumer goods
and pre-packaged foods were not as plentiful and as
common as they are today. Complicating matters, the
manufacturing capability of the United States was
very limited and couldn’t meet the needs of a rapidly
expanding Army. This put an enormous strain on the
ability to supply critical war material and equipment
overseas in a timely manner. It became necessary to be
as frugal as possible with available resources and rely on
already existing systems of reuse and recycling.
The focus wasn’t solely on recycling materials either.
Conservation was every bit as important. Americans were
reminded of their wartime duty not to waste food, water
and to conserve gas by carpooling. Some ads went as far
to say that riding solo meant you were supporting Adolf
Hitler!
Recycling was an integral part of Camp Meade
BETWEEN THE WARS
By Suzanne Kopich
operations in 1917 also. Scrap metal and food scraps were
collected at garbage collection points at the Camp’s mess
halls. The steel-coated tin, or tinplate cans, were shredded,
melted down and turned back into new products. Tin and
copper were both used to produce ordnance and in order
to meet the current wartime demand, recycling was the
faster and only option.
Food scraps had their own purpose. Bones and fatty
meat scraps were collected and sold to rendering plants,
which would process the scraps into a variety of products
such as lard, tallow and glycerin. Glycerin was used to
produce nitroglycerin, a primary ingredient in explosives
and propellants for ammunition.
Today we’re motivated by a different kind of battle – our
troubled environment and our limited natural resources.
Fort Meade currently has its own Recycling Facility and
has been operating it since the late 1980s. Materials
including paper, glassware, cans, plastics, cardboard,
printer ink cartridges, among other things, are collected
across the installation, then crushed, shredded, bailed and
sold.
Recycling has played an important role in Fort Meade’s
mission for decades, whether it was helping to preserve
our freedom or protect our environment. It helped win
yesterday’s wars, but the battle to enhance tomorrow’s
environment wages on.
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Recycling on Camp Meade to support the war effort c. 1917
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