University of Virginia Library

Waste Paper

Number one on the list of serious shortages was paper. Enormous
quantities of waste paper were used to make cartons in which
food, clothing, and war goods were shipped to servicemen. As early
as December 22, 1941, Leon Henderson, administrator of the Office
of Price Administration, wrote Mayor W. D. Haden of Charlottesville
urging a renewed and active effort to collect as much waste
paper and cardboard as possible. At that time the Salvage Committees
for Charlottesville and Albemarle County asked people to
send their waste paper to R. E. Hall, Jr., at the City Yards. The
local junk dealers, L. E. Coiner, Henry Hill, and Harry Wright,
shipped the paper to pulp mills, which paid an average of forty
cents per hundred pounds. About thirty tons of waste paper and
cardboard were collected by the city for each of the months of
January, February, and March, 1942; and from January through
May a total of 368 tons was collected in the county and shipped by
only two dealers. In August 73,020 pounds were collected by the
city and county.[3] During the two years 1942 and 1943 city trucks
collected only 258 tons of which Charlottesville Boy Scouts contributed
two and one-half tons for the year 1943.[4]

Beginning with 1944, however, much larger quantities of paper
were salvaged when city collections were supplemented by increasingly
large contributions from the county and the Boy Scouts. A need
for containers had become acute, with millions of servicemen on the
far sides of the Atlantic and the Pacific being supplied as no other
armies had ever been supplied before.

The city collected 87,930 pounds in April. In July the City Fire
Department became the collection depot when a bin made especially
for the purpose was installed in front of the fire house. The firemen,
using the baler given them by a patriotic citizen, converted the accumulated
paper into 150-pound bales and shipped it to a pulp mill
in Richmond. By November 15 they had sent sixty tons. During
November 8–22 Charlottesville retail merchants cooperated with local
salvage officials by declaring a Paper Holiday. Throughout that
period their customers were asked to help conserve wrapping paper
by accepting as many packages as possible unwrapped.[5]

Contributing greatly to the success of paper salvage in 1944 and
1945 were the Boy Scout drives directed by Earl Snyder. In January,
1944, the Scouts set out to “Salvage More in '44” and load two
railroad cars in that month. With the help of trucks loaned by sixteen
business firms, they filled three freight cars: seventy-five tons,
an amount well above their goal, were shipped to the paper mill
A drive in April totaled 73,900 pounds, another in July 76,120
pounds. In honor of the Scouts, business men, and truck drivers
who had cooperated to make these drives a success, a picnic supper
was given at McIntire Park. Troop Number 5 received an award
for having the highest percentage of its membership enrolled in the
drives.[6] The Executive Secretary of the Virginia State Salvage
Committee observed in a letter praising the Scouts's accomplishment.
“The amount of waste paper collected since the first of the year by
your organization, 310,000 pounds has caused the salvaging of
paper in Charlottesville to be outstanding in the State of Virginia.”[7]
A fourth drive in October totaled 65,000 pounds and filled two more
railroad cars. Three cars were filled with the 90,000 pounds gathered
in the fifth drive of February, 1945; and the April drive topped
them all with the imposing figure of 210,000 pounds. At a Boy
Scout Court of Honor on June 7, 1945, thirty-two Scouts, each of
whom had collected a minimum of 1,000 pounds, were presented
the General Eisenhower award by Lieutenant J. L. Bridges of the
School of Military Government at the University of Virginia.[8]

As a part of the annual Clean-Up, Paint-Up Campaign, the
county schools launched a special paper drive in April of 1944. A
county truck made the rounds of the schools, and additional depots
were set up for people far out in the country. In two weeks 20,000
pounds of paper were collected. Quite apart from this amount, as
was pointed out by Paul H. Cale, principal of the Greenwood High
School, was the exceptionally large collection made by the Boy
Scouts of Greenwood and Crozet. It totaled 37,500 pounds: 21,000
from Greenwood, 16,500 from Crozet. Final figures for the
county during the month of April were 73,132 pounds. May

brought only 6,840 pounds, and June still less, 2,240 pounds, with
the close of school.[9]

The national supply of paper was critically low in the summer
of 1944. Each monthly collection had fallen an average of 67,000
tons short of the national quota. The invasion of France had begun.
In response to a special plea from Washington salvage activities
in the county were intensified. The total collection for July was
33,878 pounds. A Scout drive at Crozet netted 100,000 pounds,
another brought in 110,000 pounds, and in addition to these drives,
the county salvaged 110,000 pounds between February of 1944 and
June of 1945. Proceeds of the sale made by L. E. Coiner were divided
between the county schools, which received $534.16, and the
Community Fund and Red Cross, which together received $280.00.[10]

Other groups were also active in the county. The 4-H Club of
Earlysville collected 15,900 pounds of paper. With the $40.00
received from its sale the club bought a war bond and paid for certain
other club objectives. Home Demonstration and 4-H Club
members throughout the county collected 59,600 pounds of paper
during 1944, 12,000 in 1945.[11]

In August of 1945 the State Salvage Committee announced that
waste paper, along with tin cans and household fats, would continue
to be salvaged even though the war had come to an end.[12]