# Wartime Scrap drives **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [November 17, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848 "2014-11-17T13:29:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mudrake2\_hotmail.com](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@mudrake2\_hotmail.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mudrake2_hotmail.com)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/1 "2014-11-17T13:29:50Z")
Most War Time Scrap drives were merely a ploy to get civilians involved in the war effort. It is more expensive to process alloyed metals into raw material, than it is to process new metal from ore. Much of the metals collected was stored in unused mounds and processed much later if at all. One case I have read about was the removal of all the decorative iron fencing from London parks in the UK in WWI. The rusting mess was eventually hauled offshore and dumped in the North Sea and was never used for anything. ---
**Author:** ![jonesj2205](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ecc23a/32.png) [@jonesj2205](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonesj2205)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/2 "2014-11-17T14:26:32Z")
Mudrake, welcome to SDMB. It’s customary to include a link to the column you are referring to, which I’ve done [here](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2395/were-wwii-scrap-drives-just-a-ploy-to-boost-morale). The master does indicate in the linked article iron and steel scrap drives were actually effective: > [@](#): > > Recycling of steel and iron unquestionably helped. One campaign netted five million tons of steel in just three weeks, and scrap-metal drives continued for most of the war. ---
**Author:** ![Isosleepy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/isosleepy/32/479_2.png) [@Isosleepy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isosleepy)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/3 "2014-11-17T21:18:11Z")
> [@mudrake2\_hotmail.com](#): > > It is more expensive to process alloyed metals into raw material, than it is to process new metal from ore. Recycling of scrap metal is a multi-billion dollar industry for a reason, and that reason is profit. Included in that scrap metal are many alloyed metals such as 300 and 400 series stainless. Wrought iron fencing is just about the easiest metal to recycle. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/4 "2014-11-18T00:08:25Z")
And a lot of the wartime recycling was easy-peasy to process, such as cast-iron sash weights. (Windows in older buildings were often held open by counterweights installed in the sash, instead of the brakes, or simply tight rails, that are generally used today.) ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/5 "2014-11-19T17:47:17Z")
Aluminum is actually easier and cheaper to recycle than to process from bauxite. The problem for aircraft grade aluminum is that it is precision alloys, which are harder to process from recycled material. **jonesj2205** , collecting scrap steel doesn’t prove that steel was useful. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wartime-scrap-drives/704848/6 "2014-11-19T18:46:24Z")
> [@Irishman](#): > > Aluminum is actually easier and cheaper to recycle than to process from bauxite. The problem for aircraft grade aluminum is that it is precision alloys, which are harder to process from recycled material. However, supporting the reasonably factual position that the scrap drives were more valuable as rallying exercises than for materials… A DC hotel being built in the early war years had aluminum window frames stockpiled. A DC muckraker made much hay over the “waste” of materials that coulda gone to our boys, so the builder scrapped the aluminum frames in favor of wooden ones that would eventually consume man-years of protective maintenance. The discarded frames were still in a salvage yard when the war ended.