Eco Friendly Ways To Reuse And Recycle Books And Magazines

Eco-friendly Ways To Reuse And Recycle Books And Magazines

As more and more old-growth trees are cut down, and we face the reality of having to wait close to 100 years or more to replace them, the need to recycle paper becomes increasingly important.

Paper, of course, includes books and magazines. Although paper products are nearly 100% biodegradable, it is pointless to send these resources to the dump to rot in the landfill when we can recycle and reuse them.

More than any other material we hope to recycle, books and magazines represent knowledge. We find wisdom in the pages of old books, and learn about culture in the pages of old magazines. Because of these factors, the best thing to do with old books and magazines is pass them on.

Your local library or college library will accept donations of old books, and sometimes magazines in good shape. This allows other people to benefit from the publication as well. Once you have enjoyed your book, donate it to a library rather than letting it sit on a shelf to collect dust.

The second choice, for both books and magazines, is to sell them to a used bookstore, at a garage sale, flea market, or on eBay. Other people may be looking for the exact book or magazine you have; passing it on is a win-win scenario for you and the new owner.

If you wish to reuse publications in a creative way, magazines make good colorful craft supplies for children and adults. You can cut out parts of pictures to make collages by pasting the picture pieces to a cardboard backing; or make hanging mobiles by cutting out shapes, stringing pieces of thread through holes at the top, and attaching the strings to a clothes hanger.

You can also cut out whole pictures to construct a dream board or a vision board, which helps you to think about and visualize the goals and dreams you want to achieve; for instance, a Hawaiian vacation, a certain type of job, or a new sports car.

As for traditional recycling, some areas will let you place books or magazines in your blue bin for pickup as well. Many publishers print magazines on glossy paper. It is more expensive to recycle glossy paper because the demand is low for this type of paper. This will change in the future as the need to recycle paper becomes more important.

The biggest challenge with recycling books and magazines is separating the paper from the adhesives or staples used to bind the pages. Forward-thinking recycling companies have a way to remove the waste from the bindings magnetically; in the future we should begin to see growing opportunities to recycle all kinds of paper products.

Next time you're thinking about throwing away some books or magazines, think first about how you can pass them along for others to enjoy. If that doesn't work for you, try to reuse them creatively. If you still can't find a use for them, look for places to take them where they can be recycled into new paper products, so we can save more trees.

BONUS : Edit Or Rewrite: Either Way It Is Work For You!

As a freelance writer, some of my least favorite projects are those where the client wants me to rewrite an existing article. I have since learned that this type of statement, “It’ll only involve a little editing,” usually really means, “You’ll have to rewrite the entire article in order for it to make sense.” My advice to you, the freelancer, is try to determine in advance just how much “editing” you will have to do, otherwise be prepared to initiate a time consuming rewrite that won’t pay for itself.

My first sizable rewriting job was one I now call, “my blunder from down under.” By down under, I certainly don’t mean Australia – you have to dig a lot deeper to go to where it is hotter. Get it? A real “devil” of a job!

The job involved “editing” five articles by including new information and cleaning up verbiage and syntax. Or so I thought. As it turned out, each of the five articles lacked clear and concise purpose and failed to produce a tight and sensible conclusion. I saw the “writing on the wall” and decided that the editing job would need to turn into a complete rewrite in order to make any sense of them.

Two full days later my work was done after submitting the drafts to the client, having the client send back additional changes and comments, and resubmitting the final copies back to the client.

After this experience I was mentally exhausted and frustrated, but I learned a valuable lesson: work diligently to uncover what a job entails before agreeing to take on a project and/or leave open the possibility that your price may change (read: will increase) should extra work be involved.

It was a tough lesson learned, but I found out that the “devil” is really in the details when it comes to accepting a rewriting project. Either way it is “work” for you!