Waste paper recycling

William Chivers making a presentation to pupils for their efforts
in collecting waste paper at Billingborough village
school, near Bourne, in 1942.

The concept of recycling waste has its origins in wartime when necessity meant that nothing that might be useful should be thrown away. The Second World War of 1939-45 was a particularly busy period for such prudence and children were recruited to help all they could by carrying out door to door collections of salvageable material, especially paper.

The drive to save and collect in Bourne was driven by William Chivers, Chief Sanitary Officer for South Kesteven Rural District Council throughout the war years. He had been appointed in 1939 and continued in the job until he retired in 1973.

It was his idea to collect waste paper for recycling from the general public and among those methods he used was a series of visits to local schools where he organised competitions among pupils to see who could collect the most paper in the form of old books, magazines and newspapers.

Prizes supplied by the Women's Voluntary Service (the WVS) were handed out to the winners and his campaign was such a success that during 1942 alone, over 200 tons of waste paper was collected in Bourne and the surrounding area, amounting to a cash value of £992, a small fortune in those days and a most valuable contribution to the war effort.

See also Rubbish