by Cynthia Stodolka

Created on: June 19, 2010   Last Updated: June 20, 2010

Old phone books are one of those hidden recyclable treasures. Whoever thought they could be anything you want them to be?

Recycling old phone books is a very Eco-friendly measure to practice, as well as a frugal idea that can leave a little bit more money in your wallet. In these hard economic times who doesn't want to save some cash?

They are so versatile it is incredibly a dynamic concept to practice. They can be used for various projects around the house, at school, at work or in a  business. Youth or charitable organizations can make great use of them. The idea's are endless.

Examples of a few great idea's on where and how to use them are as follows.

A Phys Ed teacher collected a few of them and her students use them as light weight's in her trim and tone class while exercising. They are the perfect weight to work with while doing a work out. With the school budget cuts she had to get creative and the phone book works perfectly and was a free item.

A non profit animal welfare group runs a cat rescue shelter, shreds the pages in a paper shredder and  uses them for animal care. They put them in the cages and the litter box to stretch their cat litter budget. The litter boxes are changed daily, so the cats always have a fresh cage and it costs them nothing. It saves them hundreds of dollars per year in donated money that they can use for something else.

A home child care provider collected a large amount of phone books and recycled them by gluing them together with a super glue, in a brick style pattern then covered them with a non-toxic type paper mache substance and painted it with a non-toxic paint and made a play fort for her pre-school age children she cares for. This saved her a huge amount of money .When it   became to worn down to play with, she shredded the pieces and her older children made stationary paper from a recipe using a blender and added glitter and made a beautiful home made gift cards.

The pages can be torn from a single phone book and used to wrap up soiled disposable diapers before they are thrown away. It helps neutralize the odor and saves on baking soda in the trash can.

You can use them to make a temporary serving table when serving food at a buffet or pot luck  dinner. Simply stack them up in equal height in columns of two and put a piece of plywood on top. Cover this with a table cloth and you have an extra serving table.

The idea's for using recycled phone books are limitless, left only to your creativity.

When you collect phone books there's a few tips to follow.

Check the pages to make sure there is no money or other valuables inside.

You can disinfect the books by spraying them very lightly with a sprayer's disinfectant and letting them air dry.

Wear disposable gloves when first handling them until you spray them.

There are many reuses for phone books, which only can be beneficial to the environment of the planet we all live on.

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