How can I reuse or recycle posters?

posters.jpgWe’ve had an email from Caren:

I’m moving out of halls next week and getting rid of the posters I bought at the start of the year, am sick of looking at them!!

I could just put them in our green bin but wondered if you had any better suggestions?

If they’re still in good condition, you might want to see if your student union has a furniture recycling programme and if they’d accept them in that. I don’t know how widely spread the practise is but (my local uni) Leeds University Union has a scheme to collect unwanted furniture, crockery, pans and other homeware etc at the end of the year instead of it just been dumped in the rubbish in the rush to clear out for the summer. The stuff is then redistributed to those in need in the local community – while posters aren’t as critical as having a pan to cook your dinner in, they might help cheer up a depressing room for someone. Or you could just pass them on to someone directly using Freecycle.

Aside from that, most proper posters I’ve come across tend to be pretty heavy paper so could be used for all sorts of papercrafts. You could use a couple which are either similar or pleasantly contrasting to make a paper basket like I featured on Things To Do Today last week. They could also be used as heavy-duty wrapping paper or made into gift bags/envelopes.

Any other ideas?

(Oh, and we’ve covered laminated posters too.)

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7 Responses to “How can I reuse or recycle posters?”


  1. Bobbie says:

    Great material for collages and scrapbooking.

  2. María says:

    You can also use them as wrapping paper.

  3. Nicole says:

    I keep thinking about using them to wallpaper my garage.

  4. Mary says:

    How about giving them to a thrift shop? I like the idea of using them as wallpaper–maybe you could paper a closet with them.

  5. Jennifer says:

    Book covers – nice to be able to save the original dust jacket from damage while you’re reading it, doesn’t matter if your homemade book cover gets dinged in your tote bag!

    • caroline says:

      Love this idea. It made me think I could cover old notebooks in posters too – they would make cool journals.

  6. Olia says:

    You can use them as a car window cover on hot days, when the car is parked.
    Glue them to a cardboard shaped like a back window, if needed.



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