# Greater good for used magazines. Recycle or pass along? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 19, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193 "2016-05-19T23:20:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/1 "2016-05-19T23:20:28Z")
I’m always torn about what to do with the magazines I subscribe to after I read them. I can take them to the recycler, I go there every other week or I could leave them in the break room at work. If I leave them in the break room they may or may not get read and will likely end up in the trash. I’m talking about the one current events magazine I still get, Time. The guitar magazine I still get, Vintage Guitar, I usually pass along to our UPS driver who says he passes them along to another guy after he finishes them. He’s also said that he doesn’t get to them sometimes because of the demands of a busy life. There are also random magazines that publishers send me in the hope that I may sign up. They sent me Golf Digest for almost a year. I have no interest in golf. Maybe the magazines I take to the recyclers end up in a landfill anyway. There’s a part of me that likes the idea of others getting some use from them. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2016, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/2 "2016-05-19T23:26:29Z")
You can call and ask your library if they want them - sometimes they can be used for arts-and-crafts, or they can be sold in the library “used book” sale or store. You can contact retirement homes or your doctor/dentist/vet/other medical service provider locations and see if they want them for their waiting rooms. You can contact halfway houses, detention centers, and women’s shelters to see if they might want them. Or, you can take them to recycling, and they’ll get churned into the circle of paper and turned into another magazine before too long. There’s nothing wrong with that either. (If you take them to a recycling place specifically, as opposed to a dump or a landfill site, or even to a special “paper ONLY” bin at a dump or landfill, they ARE getting recycled. Paper recycling is a big deal, and a lot cheaper (and a lot better looking to companies wanting to be enviro-friendly, green, or eco-conscious) than new paper. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/3 "2016-05-20T03:08:09Z")
Cross-subscribe with friends or family! I subscribe to A, B, and C – and my sister takes M, N, and O. We save 'em up and trade! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/4 "2016-05-20T03:33:34Z")
“People”? Or “The Economist”? Not of equal value in the hands of the masses, althugh maybe equal at the recycling center… Loaded question: Why isn’t recycling magazines the same as burning books? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/5 "2016-05-20T04:11:37Z")
We get home delivery of the NY Times (expensive out here but well worth it) and we pass it along to two friends who really enjoy it but can’t justify getting it. New Yorker also. But as others have said, it helps to have someone who wants them. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/6 "2016-05-20T04:15:03Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > “People”? Or “The Economist”? Not of equal value in the hands of the masses, althugh maybe equal at the recycling center… > > Loaded question: Why isn’t recycling magazines the same as burning books? I think there was a Journal of Irreproducible Results article about the world ending by being buried in back issues of National Geographic, which no one used to throw out, apparently. Magazines have short shelf lives, usually having contents updated by future issues or being timely. Books are in for the long haul. But “burning books” is to keep people from seeing their contents. Pulping extra volumes of The Da Vinci Code is a far different thing. ---
**Author:** ![Mudshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Mudshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mudshark)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/7 "2016-05-20T04:34:16Z")
We trade with my sister. She gives us Time, National Geographic, and Discovery, we giver her Reader’s Digest, and US. We recycle them when we are done, except the National Geographic. My sister wants them back if we are going to get rid of them. ---
**Author:** ![Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8491ac/32.png) [@Fool\_in\_the\_Rain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fool_in_the_Rain)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2016, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/8 "2016-05-20T14:03:41Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > **We get home delivery of the NY Times (expensive out here but well worth it)** and we pass it along to two friends who really enjoy it but can’t justify getting it. New Yorker also. > But as others have said, it helps to have someone who wants them. Being in Deep Space, I bet it is mighty expensive. We usually leave it in the bathroom for reading material. Then it gets recycled when the new one comes in. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/9 "2016-05-22T06:02:40Z")
> [@Lasciel](#): > > You can call and ask your library if they want them - sometimes they can be used for arts-and-crafts, or they can be sold in the library “used book” sale or store. Our Library Foundation gets them donated often, despite saying that we don’t want them. Because they don’t sell, so we just quietly send them to recycling. You can try taking them to the waiting room of your doctor, dentist, etc. – people expect to find old magazines there. The receptionist will cull them occasionally. Often, the best use for them is recycling. Paper is one of the more valueable things in the recycling stream. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Ace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/6bbea6/32.png) [@Johnny\_Ace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Ace)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2016, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/greater-good-for-used-magazines-recycle-or-pass-along/755193/10 "2016-05-22T07:03:11Z")
Penn and Teller have an interesting _Bullshit!_ episode on how eco-friendly recycling really isn’t. Here’s a small clip, but you should watch the entire episode if you can find it; it goes into much greater detail and looks very reasonable to me. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7czKngCUASM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7czKngCUASM)