The Ruling on Placing the Remainder of the Food in the Garbage and Using Newspapers as a Tablecloth

Question :

1. Is it permissible to use newspapers as tablecloths in order to eat off them, and if it is not permissible, what should be done with them after reading them?

2. Regarding the leftovers from the food, some people put it in a box or the like so that the animals can eat it, but the cleaning workers come and place it with the rest of the garbage, so the question is: Is it permissible to put the food with the other garbage?

Answer:

1. It is not permissible to use newspapers as tablecloths to be eaten off, nor to wrap things in them, nor to place them with other discarded things, if there are Qur'anic Verse in them, or the Name of Allah, the Almighty, the All-Powerful is mentioned therein. If the situation is as we have mentioned, it is necessary to preserve them in a suitable place or burn them, or bury them in good earth.

2. It is necessary to send it to whoever will eat it, such as the poor, if there are any. And if there are no poor people to eat it, it must be put in a place far from the rubbish, so that animals may eat it. If that is difficult, then it is necessary to keep it in cartons or plastic bags or the like, and it is a duty of the municipalities in every city to order those responsible among them to place it in clean places so that it may be eaten by the animals, or so that people may take it for their animals. In this way the food may be saved from neglect and waste.

Source:
Ibn Baz
Fatawa Islamiyah, Vol. 6 Pages 260-261