We don’t take the newspaper anymore but hubby picks up 1/2” of sales circulars whenever he’s in a grocery store, big box store or drugstore and we use those. My MIL saves her papers for us and hubby usually pilfers the days paper out of the garbage can in the break room at work when he can. We end up with a giant stack.
We use cardboard boxes (cereal boxes, jello boxes, cream cheese boxes, etc but no electronics or toy boxes, those are from china) for walkways and around more permanent stuff like my strawberries and other fruit.
YMMV, of course. I’m going to do a bit of raking oak leaves tomorrow and spread those around my already sprouted garlic. I will probably put newspaper/cereal boxes down in between the varieties just so I have someplace to walk in case it rains and the garden turns into gumbo.
I use some cardboard for the garden, and recycle some. This year we are fortunate to have some old carpet, that hubby plans to put down between is raised rows in the garden to avoid the mud mess in spring.