Reading newspapers is all well and good but when you have a pile of it lying in your basement or storage and collecting dust, you’re probably considering throwing them away. Unfortunately, there is just too much trash being disposed of in dump sites that adding to them further isn’t helping out. If you want to do your part for the environment, why not recycle your stack of old newspapers? Here are some ideas to get you started.
- Burn them. If you want to light up your fireplace or your grill, instead of using a starter log, you can use newspapers to start a fire. This will save you money in the process which is a plus.
- Envelopes. Recycling your old newspapers into envelopes is a fun way to give them a new life. Now you won’t have to worry about what envelop to use for your letters because newspapers can do the trick.
- Gift wrapper. Every time someone celebrates their birthday or when the holiday season rolls in, everyone is in a rush to get gift wrappers to wrap their gifts up. Not only is this practice expensive especially when you have a lot of gifts to wrap but they’re also adding to the amount of trash being disposed of. Recycle your old newspapers as gift wrappers which add to the mystery of what is underneath them.
- Placemats. A little bit of creativity can go a long way especially when it comes to recycling newspapers because there are literally a dozen ideas that you can use to reuse your stacks of newspapers. One such project that you can do in your free time is to make placemats out of them. All that you have to do is to cut newspapers into strips then weaving them into one another until you reach your desired width and length. Repeat as many times as you want until you have your desired number of placemats.
- Packing paper. If you are planning on moving house or you want to send some stuff to your loved ones back home, instead of buying bubble wraps simply use your old newspapers as packing paper to keep the items safe during delivery. Fill the box with newspapers so your fragile items won’t get broken.
- Make origami. For those who are just starting to do origami art, why not start with your old newspapers first? This way you won’t be wasting origami paper especially when you make a wrong fold or tear.
- Fruit ripening. If you have fruit bearing trees at home and have accidentally picked an under ripe fruit, wrap it in newspaper to speed up the process. Some farmers use newspapers to protect young fruits against pests which you can use in your own fruit garden as well.
- Gift bags. Another way to reuse newspapers is to make bags out of them. When creating a gift bag, make sure that you secure the edges properly so that it won’t be easily torn. You can add other decorations to it if you like to make your recycled gift bag more captivating.
- Garlands. If you are into DIY, you will find newspapers to be useful in many ways. A good project to do over the weekend is to make garlands out of your stack of newspapers. Cut them into your desired shapes and connect them with one another until you reach your desired length and cut them for hanging later.
As you can see, your old newspapers can be transformed into something useful aside from being a source of information. For sure you will find more uses for your stack of newspapers in no time.
