TxTravelPro

Ok, so many of you won't give a hoot... but I sort of enjoy making people smile and found a simple way to recycle.
I get WAY too many magazines subscriptions and I travel weekly. Now I take the magazines I have finished with me when I fly and give them to the flight attendants. Yes, it briefly takes up some room in my carry on and weighs a little but it has been wildly popular with the flight attendants that have something to look at when they are not busy working. It also has made them treat me a little special, which is nice.
Really, just making someone smile and feel good is enough for me and it beats the heck out of tossing them out.
The last FA said that the magazines (8 of 'em) would be passed on and on for days.

bookhall

Hey, thanks, good idea...

Wildflower

It depends. We tried to do the same with six magazines and our flight attendent tossed them out. Maybe he doesn't read Science, New Yorker and Business Week.

GBelle

I take a lot of my magazines to the doctor's office and just leave them in the waiting room. I'm done with them and at least someone else won't have to wait while reading a magazine from 1995.

ccolor

We take ours to nursing homes/rehabilitation facilities - they have to be current, but the residents really do appreciate the effort.

TxTravelPro

Funny thing... I get about 15 magazines a month FROM my grandmothers retirement home.
They pass them around and send them to relatives that want them when they are finished. They have a big box in the entry for this very purpose.
When I have doctors appts I take a few to leave in the office but I am not there often and I travel just about every week.
I wish I could find someone to take all my husbands Mustang and car magazines.
Also all the Maxim, FHM, Stuff and other risque magazines that I am a little embarrassed to take to the traditional places (homes, doctors, etc)
We checked with our som in Iraq and he said that they have plenty of these, possibly donated by the publisher.
Any ideas?

dwooddon

Another suggestion: Almost every county in the country has a temporary shelter for abused, abandoned, and neglected children. Many of them can use suitable magazines and some of them have associated thrift shops to sell magazines (and other goods) to provide additional funds for the benefit of the children. Donating to such a shelter not only provides an outlet for unwanted items but does a lot of deserving children good.

In Orange County, California, that shelter is called Orangewood Children's Home. I haven't been here in Clark County long enough to find out what it is here but I will.

buttercup

A nearby town has a room in the library for magazine exchanges. You can leave them and/or take them. I've always thought it was great idea.

EmilyC

At my last job, we had a book basket in our break room. If you were done with a book, you left it there and if you saw one that you liked...you took it.
This basket was lots of fun for those of us who were heavy readers!

jimshep

I like the idea of recycling magazines, but I thought it was flight attendants' job to get on our good sides, not the other way around. Am I missing something?

Andrew

A cheerful flight attendant can make your flight lots more fun. Sure it is their "job" to serve you politely and efficiently, but being genuninely friendly and nice isn't a requirement.

I like talking to flight attendants - it can make a long flight seem much shorter. Sometimes they are not interested in talking to passengers, but other times they seem relieved to have an interesting conversation. Surely it passes the time more easily for them, too.

I'm not sure why giving magazines to a flight attendant would cheer them up unless you have a specific magazine they don't have. The planes usually have numerous magazines on board anyway, and there may not be lots of room for extra magazines.

Little_Man

I think that's a good idea, Travel Pro! I often find that by the time I board, there are no magazines left, and I'm always happy when I do find some!

TxTravelPro

AA fights have not had magazines other than American Way, Celebrated Living and Nexus (Spanish) for quite some time.
Maybe it is the magazines I have that they really enjoy, I don't know. Generally Gourmet, Bon Appetit, various womens magazines and tabloids. Stuff that is an easy quick read.
They always say they are thrilled to have them! Never have they said that they have enough magazines or no room, never even hinted of such a thing.
I chat with them once in a while... my brother is a pilot on AA and I used to work for AA. Maybe that's why I care.
It's a little gesture. The subject title is not really the motivation... rather the first sentence sums it up.