if your "artistic" you could take a couple mags and "cut-out" key pictures to paste ( decoupage ) gift boxes ( a valentine's candy box recently would have been perfect ) and such then brush a clear-coat sealant over top to keep the pictures in place.

agreed printed material isn't worth much anymore ( literary mostly! ) if your going to throw it out you might as well "shred" it and feed it to your garden.

jim

p.s - yes you could recycle it but do you really want to stand there while the refuse workers look over your recyclables?