With the back-to-school season in full swing, there are all sorts of new papers and handouts in circulation. Try out this simple tip to make them pull double duty in your home and put them to use a few more times before they hit the recycling bin.
More so than any other time of year, the beginning of the school season seems to fill our houses with paper. Kids bring home permission slips, newsletters, notes, homework assignments and more. Most of the information is the "read once and toss it" type and after the important dates are written on your home calendar, they usually get chucked.
Before they hit your recycling bin, try giving them life once more in your home printer. Keep a box of stray one sided papers by your printer and toss a few in if you have something to print that isn't of super high importance. Maybe it's your grocery or shopping list, possibly directions to a friend's house or a wedding or even just coloring sheets for your children.
There's still one side to be used before they have to be recycled. Once you start looking for ways to put paper of this nature to work for you, the ideas will come flooding in.
(Image: Flickr member Issac Bowen licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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They tend to jam my printer. I rip them into quarters and use them as note paper near the phone.
I work in a small public library and paper re-cycling and RE-recycling are a way of life here. We receive boxes of used paper from a nearby business and use that for all in-house printing. But often there are still blank areas on one side--we cut it up and use it for wrapping hold items on our reserve shelf.
I also work in a small public library, and we re-use school papers from the director's children as well as old paper donations from patrons for our printing.
Yup, I use these papers to print shipping labels on (which I then cutout & compost the small bits of scrap). I've cut down on buying reams of paper by SO MUCH. Especially as we're refinancing our house & have used so much paper in that process
I have a stack of paper from my mom and aunt that is NO KIDDING 2 feet high!
I use it for anything that needs printing, right now there is a submission form for our health insurance on the reverse of some of it.
Lots of it gets printed for colouring pages for the kids.
Anyone know how you can make paper be sticky like post it's? I'd use a lot of it that way.
@Angus:
http://www.thriftyfun.com/tf61652666.tip.html