Q. Do you have to save articles of Torah in newspapers and magazines and discard them as shemos or can you just double wrap them in plastic bags and put them in the recyclables?

A. Rambam (Yesodei HaTorah 6:1) notes “One who erases one of Hashem’s holy names transgresses a negative commandment as the verse states regarding idol worship, ‘And you shall eradicate their name from that place; you shall not do so to Hashem your G-d.’ Tur and Shulchan Aruch (Y.D. 276: 9) rule accordingly. It would seem though that the biblical prohibition applies only to Hashem’s names and not to words of Torah which are only rabbinically proscribed (Rambam ibid. 6:8, Chinuch 477 and Tashbatz 1: 2, however Magen Avraham 154: 9 disagrees.) There are also diverging opinions as to the status of holy names and words of Torah that were written or printed without the intention of becoming holy at all or to be only temporarily read and then discarded as newspapers are. Furthermore some Poskim are lenient when the words were printed and not hand written (see Chavas Yoir 164, Chazon Ish 164: 3.) There is an additional leniency regarding newspapers dedicated mainly to non-Torah articles that may not necessarily contain any Torah at all.

When newspapers do include special sections or articles of Torah, Poskim recommend proper g’niza as with common shemos (Horav Eliashiv Zt”l and Ilcht”a Horav Nissim Karelitz Shlit”a quoted in Ginzei Kodesh 14: 3:6). Other Poskim are lenient on non-dedicated Torah sections or in secular Hebrew or English newspapers when Gentiles carry out the garbage disposal and the newspapers are placed in a separate closed bag (ibid. quoting Horav Pinchas Scheinberg Zt’l and Ilcht”a Horav Shmuel Kamenetzky Shlit”a). Minchas Osher (Reeh 18) mentions a double non-transparent bag.

Horav Shlomo Miller’s Shlit’a opinion is similar. You can dispose of the above unwrapped newspaper material, when placed with clean recyclables, otherwise it should be bagged.

Rabbi A. Bartfeld as revised by Horav Shlomo Miller Shlit’a