Eagerly sell old and useless materials to support socialist construction

踊跃出售废旧物资支援社会主义建设
Yongyue chushou feijiu wuzi zhiyuan shehui zhuyi jianshe
Eagerly sell old and useless materials to support socialist construction
Early 1960s
Shandong sheng tuchan gongsi (山东省土产公司)
54x78 cm.
BG E15/721

This poster, published by the Shandong Provincial Local Products Company, illustrates the variety of consumer goods that can be handed in and the products they will be turned into after being recycled. Many of them project a sense of turning the old into something new and modern: old rubber boots and tyres reappear as trainers, for example. The way the poster is structured contributes to the idea that posters were used for educational purposes, to make people realize that many of the goods that they themselves might consider useless and irrelevant for handing over (like human hair), actually could contribute to the national goals of development. The lower left-hand corner of the poster shows how a collection point may have looked like at the time, even though it is clearly located in the countryside. The practice of having a chart on the wall spelling out buying prices for goods handed in further testifies to the existence of a well-functioning collection and distribution system, connecting supply and demand on a national scale. A final interesting detail about this educational print is that the name of the publisher, the Shandong Provincial Local Products Company, does not suggest that it is specialized in recycling or collecting junk.

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