• When priced right they will sell well at yard sales.
• They also sell well when donated to thrift stores where they are often priced at 25 - 50 cents.
• They are usually sturdy enough and stay decent looking to be reused many, many times.
• Give them to friends or relatives who will be attending holiday or birthday parties, wedding or baby showers.
• If some of them are getting a little ratty you can add some ribbon, bows or other adornments to spruce them up.
• Once they are no longer decent for gift giving they can be used as lunch bags (and you'll know which one is yours at a glance).
• Use them in the bathroom to hold extra rolls of toilet tissue.
• Use them as trash cans in your car.
• If they are too ratty they can still be used to store gift wrapping materials in them.
• If the pictures are pretty cut them into flat pieces and hang them on the wall. You can use the cord as a hanger, or mount them onto card board or plywood or even frame them.

If you have no other options they can not be recycled with mixed paper unless they are just plain paper bags.

The metalic, plastic and plastic coated ones go in the garbage when they are no longer useful.