Making Cardboard from Waste Paper

Question

In the present age, along with the abundance of paper, waste paper is also very plentiful. Among it are Urdu newspapers, which sometimes contain translations of hadith and translations of the Noble Qur’an; also pages of “Bihishti Zewar” (“Heavenly Ornaments”), Urdu fiqh, or Arabic grammar and the like — what is to be done with these? Nowadays a cardboard mill buys this waste paper in order to make cardboard, and there it is washed and cleaned and put to use in making cardboard, which serves people’s needs.

Answer

If they do not show disrespect to these pages, do not use them for impurities, and wash them to make cardboard, then it is permissible according to the Sacred Law to sell them into such hands.

Source: Fatawa Mahmudiyya

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