The Green Parent

Magazines seem to pile up quicker than dirty laundry in my house, even though we purposely limit the number of subscriptions we carry in order to reduce waste. Fortunately, there are a number of things we can do with our monthly magazine supply to keep them out of the trash bin and even give them a second (or third or fourth) life. If you’ve got a mountain of magazines in your house, here’s how to reuse and recycle them.

Pass Them On:

Swap magazines with a friend or donate them to your local school, museum, library, woman’s shelter, or nursing home where they will be enjoyed over and over again.

Get Crafty: Most magazines are brimming with cool photos and images. Here are a few crafty ways to use those images to fill up a rainy day:

• • • Make A Collage: Cut out images and paste to a sheet of paper or posterboard. Make it challenging for kids by asking them to find pictures that all begin with the same letter, color, or theme (like summer shots, or food images)
    • Wrap It Up: Tape together a few pages from a magazine and use it as wrapping paper. Or cut out images to adorn a wrapped gift.
    • Show Your Cards: Cut out images from the magazine and paste to construction paper or paper board to make an original card.
    • Paper Mache: Use pages from old magazines to make a colorful paper mache.
    • Be A Doll: Cut out and laminate images of models from magazines to make your child her own set of paper dolls.

Shred It: Shredded magazines can be used in place of tissue paper in gifts, as packaging material, as confetti, or to line animal cages (if you don’ have a pet, donate shredded magazines to your local animal shelter)

Recycle: If you’re crafted out and you can’t find anyone else who might be interested in your old magazines, you can still keep them out of the landfill by recycling them. Contact your local recycling center (or check out Earth 911) to find out where you can recycle magazines.

Need more info about recycling? Check out these posts from the past:

E-Cycling: The Green Parent’s Guide to Disposing of Electronic Gadgets
Test Your Trash Can I.Q.
Got Leaves? Get Composting
Recycling 101
Recycle This!
Packing Peanuts
Grasscycling