Most of us have a favorite magazine, or even several, that we subscribe to for recreational reading or to keep track of the news or things going on in the business world. When we finish reading them, some of us want to be able to recycle the paper, but many kinds of colored paper are not very suitable for typical recycling programs. Newsprint – the paper newspapers are made out of – is much easier to incorporate into environmentally friendly recycling programs.

But you can recycle in a different way, by passing your magazines along to another reader. It works in the same way that hand-me-down clothing works, except that magazines usually are more fun to receive, especially if you pass them along quickly while they are still current. Buy or subscribe to your magazines, keep them for a while and read them, and then pass them on to a neighbor.

One good way to distribute our leftover reading material is to take the magazines and give them to a doctor’s office, a fire station, or other places where magazines are welcome. For instance, if you give your magazines to the fire station, then the people who spend long hours there waiting for emergency calls will have plenty of free reading material. Or you can box them up and ship them to a soldier stationed overseas, give them to a college student, or even donate them to a local library or school.

Before giving away you old magazines, it is a good idea to use a marker pen to delete the subscriber info, for security purposes. And be sure to keep your magazines in good shape, rather than using them for coffee cup coasters or other purposes that will mark or stain them. Of course you may come across issues of magazines and decide to keep them, which is fine. Just box the ones you want to give away in one spot, and each month you can take the recycle box to your favorite charity.

The more you give, the better you’ll feel, because not only will you be helping the environment by not being wasteful, you’ll be turning on other people to entertaining, informative, or otherwise useful and valuable magazines that they might otherwise not be able to read.

Firstly, the colorful pages of a magazine strongly appeals to the reader. The excellent color contrast used in the magazine ensures that magazines are extremely easy on the eyes. The use of appropriate bright colors further stimulates the interest and grabs the attention of the reader. In addition, magazines provide more in-depth coverage of a certain topic, as compared to newspapers. This can be attributed to the fact that newspapers cover news on a daily basis and often on a wide range of topics. Given the constraints posed by tighter datelines, it is often not possible for newspaper journalists to do extensive research on the subject matter. Moreover, the broad based coverage of newspapers also means that there is restricted column space for write-ups pertaining to any single category. In contrast, magazines are often highly focused on a single topic, which enables it to better cater to its targeted customers. With more time available for the conducting of background research, magazines are also able to offer more extensive coverage on topics that are of interest to the reader. Also, magazine writers often write in a more conversational tone than you would normally find on newspapers. Newspapers are often bounded by its serious facades. On the other hand, magazines generally use more colorful language, which enables it to connect to the readers better. In fact, reading newspapers can be likened to a one-way dialogue, while reading magazines can be seen as a two-way conversation. Naturally, the reader would be more absorbed and engrossed in reading something that he or she can relate to and communicate with. This is the reason why many of us enjoy reading magazines more than newspapers and serves as the cornerstone to the success of magazines. On top of these, magazines come in more user-friendly sizes, as compared to the traditional bulky newspapers. This is where the magazine again has an advantage. It is designed to fit snugly into your palms so as to facilitate easy flipping and hence reading.

Last but not least, carrying a magazine does not dirty your hands, unlike holding newspapers. Newspapers are generally printed at a very speedy rate with a mineral oil ink. As newsprint is not heated, the ink has little time to dry. Instead, this ink is absorbed by the inner fibers of the sheets of paper and does not evaporate completely. This explains why some of the ink can go onto your hands. Magazine ink does not stay on its pages because it is often completely dried during the print run and is printed on a different type of paper.