With the onslaught of the internet age, you would think that newspapers are close to extinction. This couldn’t be any farther from the truth. In fact, there are an estimated 24 billion newspapers published each and every year, most of which ends up in a landfill somewhere near your home. What’s worst yet, there are some 350 million magazines produced every year.
Rather than just throwing all those daily papers away, consider the following clever ideas to reduce the waste.
1) Wash You Windows - Believe it or not, you can use newspaper to clean your windows. Mix up a batch of water mixed with white vinegar and you too can clean windows without streaks or harmful chemicals.
2) Start a Fire - Want to start a fire in your fireplace or out back in the fire put, considering using your newspaper instead of an expensive starter log or other harmful chemicals.
3) Prevent Weed Growth – When you are building up your beds when you are gardening, place a layer of newspaper down first and it will prevent weeds from pushing through the soil that you placed on top of it.
4) Gift Wrap – It’s always a conversation piece when you bring a gift to the party wrapped up in the Sunday’s funnies. Kids and adult both love to open their gift and get a laugh at the same time.
5) Packing Supplies – Do you need to wrap up breakables in boxes for storage or maybe you need to ship something through the mail, newspapers are commonly used as packing supplies to protect those valuables from being broke while in boxes.
6) Paper Airplanes – For decades we have been fascinated with flight. Challenge your children to see who can make the best paper airplane from today’s paper.
7) Origami Paper – Newspaper are great for holding folds. Although a little less resilient than normal Origami paper, it’s still great for those projects where you can give it the attention and care that’s needed.
8) Drawer Lining – Place news paper under things that otherwise would make a mess. Stick some in the drawers of your refrigerator; put it in the cupboards to protect that wonderful wood finish from moisture from whatever you are putting in the cabinets. The news paper will absorb odors and liquids.
9) Ripening Fruit – Believe it or not, if you find that you bought some fruit that is not ripe yet, try wrapping it in newspaper and in no time you will see that it actually helps to ripen fruit on your behalf.
10) Shine up that sink – Grab a web bunch of news paper, wad it up and shine up your stainless steel sinks.
11) Paper Mache – I remember as a kid one of the funniest projects that I ever took on was a paper Mache project. Newspaper provides hours of fun for the kids to make wonderful creations in paper Mache.
12) Donate Newspaper – Donate them to local animal shelters that need newspaper to line the animal cages. Check with local charities who will take in newspaper to recycle.
13) Animals Crate – Pet owners can use newspapers to line the bottoms of the crates that the animals use. It provides the owners with an easier clean up if you pup has an accident.
14) Make your own paper – Believe it or not, it can be done. Follow our friends here at Pioneer Thinking and they can step you through the process of recycling your own paper at home.
15) Make your own yarn – Again, you might be shocked to hear that you can spin paper into yarn and then you can knit or crochet your paper into anything that you would like.