The range and volume of materials salvaged in wartime Scarborough was impressive. In the Council’s Salvage Depot there were large amounts of ferrous and non-ferrous (containing no iron) metals, books and wastepaper. The Council, under government directives, had also been salvaging rags, carpets, textiles, razor blades, jam jars, empty bottles and long-playing records. A considerable effort had been made to recover kitchen waste and bones. In the first three years of the war the Town Hall salvaged 3,337 tons of waste. By the Spring of 1944 the figures had risen to 4,489 tons. Relative to the rest of Yorkshire, Scarborough’s record was impressive, as can be seen from the table below.
|
Year |
Yorkshire average value of salvage per 1,000 of the population |
Scarborough average per 1,000 of the population |
|
1940 |
£51.9 |
£47.8 |
|
1941 |
£73.8 |
£100 |
|
1942 |
£115.9 |
£135.9 |
|
1943 |
£116.6 |
£157.9 |
