Don't throw away broken leather shoes, recycle them to turn them into fertilizer

破皮鞋莫扔掉回收加工造肥料
Po pixie mo rengdiao huishou jiagong zao feiliao
Don't throw away broken leather shoes, recycle them to turn them into fertilizer
Early 1960s
Liaoning sheng fei jiu wuzi huishou gongsi (辽宁省废旧物资回收公司)
77x52 cm.
BG E15/931

This poster, published by the Liaoning Old and Used Goods Collection Company, shows how old leather shoes are turned into artificial fertilizer. Producing inputs to increase agricultural production fitted with the prevailing developmental strategy to facilitate industrialization. The image focus on leather shoes is remarkable: most Chinese at the time would have worn cloth shoes. It can be argued that in those days of increasing revolutionary fervor, owning leather shoes might incur suspicions of belonging to the capitalist class. What better way than exonerating oneself than by donating these aspects of class distinction to the revolution?

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