Creative uses for Yellow Pages?

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Original Post

LocalGringos says

We've just gotten our new phone books, and I am so bummed out to think of all the old ones going to the landfill every year. We're talking millions and millions of pages ... what a waste!

So I decided to dream up crafty uses for all that paper as an art material. I started a "Yellow Pages Project" on my blog to try to round up some ideas to share.

If you have suggestions, or links to finished projects using yellow pages, could you post them here, or to my blog entry:

localgringos.blogspot.com/2009/03/yellow-pages-project-free-paper-g...

Thanks, all!

Posted at 10:07am Mar 7, 2009 EST

Responses

thecyclingartist says

Landfill? Why aren't you recycling it?

Paint on pages, use as 'rags' (newsprint is great for paint cleanup), make envelopes with the pages, hole punch and tie together for a notepad. :)

Posted at 10:10am Mar 7, 2009 EST

dwhitecreations says

Can you use them to clean mirrors? I know my mom used to make us use newspaper to clean mirrors.

Posted at 10:14am Mar 7, 2009 EST

urbanwoodswalker says

Yellow pages are cool. But the color will fade unfortunately. All the inks and the paper itself are very poor quality. I have made sculptural baskets...but them I use adhesives, and UV spray varnish coatings to make them saleable and permenant. Still never leave any item made with this kind of paper out in strong prolonged light.

On flickr there is a "Recyled Newspapers" Groups where artists all over the world showcase their work. Its just amazing!

Posted at 10:14am Mar 7, 2009 EST

CaramelJubilee says

I recycle mine with my newspaper.

CaramelJubilee

Posted at 10:25am Mar 7, 2009 EST

LocalGringos says

thecyclingartist, that's my point exactly. Recycling is not available in my community, and has only just begun in Albuquerque, the nearest big city. That's why I was so sad to see all those phone books! Even if I recycle my books, that still leaves another 600 million pages going to landfill.

Posted at 10:30am Mar 7, 2009 EST

urbanwoodswalker says

www.flickr.com/groups/new-newspaper/

And...several more groups including recycled newspaper works of art:

www.flickr.com/search/groups/?q=recycled+newspaper

Posted at 10:43am Mar 7, 2009 EST

MadisonHouseDesigns says

This is creative, but not in a crafty way... I was just reading in Best Friends magazine (a large animal sanctuary in Utah, bestfriends.org) that they use old phone books for their rescued birds, who like to get their beaks into them. Now, I'm certainly not suggesting that you ship your phone books out to Utah (that could be expensive), but their may be an animal shelter in your area that could put them to good use. Just a thought. :)

Posted at 11:03pm Mar 7, 2009 EST