Team Mouna
Recyclable Waste(Paper)
Introduction
Paper is one of the most versatile and important materials used in homes, schools, offices, and
businesses throughout the world. Each day we enjoy the benefits of paper products. The
newspaper we read in the morning, the box that holds our cereal, the paper we use for homework
and business purposes and the documents that mark the significant achievements of our lives all
contribute to our daily quality of life.
Paper dates back over 2,000 years. Hand-made production methods were used until the 19th
century. The industrialization of the paper making process helped to bring education and books
to a broad spectrum of people, and continued advances have resulted in better and more efficient
products that meet our daily needs, while leaving a smaller footprint on our environment
Americans have been recycling paper for more than 300 years. What started out as a small
movement has grown to extraordinary proportions?
Today Americans recover 55 percent of the paper they consume. That recovered paper goes back
into new products we use everyday - like newspapers, corrugated containers, grocery sacks,
cereal boxes and office paper. To build on this success, the U.S. paper industry has set a goal to
recover 60 percent of all paper consumed in the U.S. by 2012. While we are well on our way,
there is more to be done.
While great strides have been made in the recovery of several grades of paper, including
corrugated (cardboard) and newsprint, one area with the opportunity for improvement is the high
quality fiber found in offices. In workplaces across America, nearly 15.7 million tons of printingwriting papers were recovered in 2006, up from more than 10 million tons in 1995. Still, less
than half of all office papers are recycled.
Concept
What kind of paper?
Since paper is one of the easiest available materials, at grassroot level we can recycle paper and
use it again. Every week when you open the mail box you bundles of news paper, hardly 25% of
this is used by students as we have no time to cut discount coupons and use them for groceries.
Apart from this we tear or shred lots of ours mails on weekly or monthly basis. There are lots of
paper which we as student use to write notes which no longer is useful especially if it is used for
scribbling or practicing notes. It has also been seen that some magazines and paper towels the
ones used just to wipe off dust pile up as paper waste. On the other hand cereal boxes are the
most common paper waste we pile up. With these many varieties of paper wastes at our disposal
we can make a great use of it at our own small levels.
What can be made?
Mini Bin
As kids we grew up making paper mashes and making paper mash balls and using them as paper
weights were one of our few hobbies. Thinking about how much paper we have at out disposal
here we came up with the same idea of recycling paper to make small useful things. We can see
that at any given office cubicle we have a small plastic bin to collect recyclable wastes as small
as piece of paper thrown. This gave us the idea that if we can make paper mashes and mould
them around the cereal boxes these plastic bins can be replaced by “paper bins “now hard and
handy.
Go Green saving Green
This concept was developed when we used the paper waste we collected at home as newspapers,
reusable paper towels, shred mails etc .Once these are soaked in water; we made a massive ball
out of it. We allowed this to dry(remember we can let it harden or we cant shape it).As the
soaked paper was drying we used the cereal boxes and started to cover the soaked paper around
them(cereal boxes can vary in size use according to what size of bin is needed).The soaked paper
sticks pretty well to the box and was allowed to dry. Once one side was side we did the same
with the all the four sides. We now had a paper bin which was now stronger than just a cereal
box being used thanks to the hardened paper mash. We can make small to big paper bins
depending on availability of cereal boxes. To add meaning to it paint it green or use straws
thrown away to decorate the bin. You now have a “Paper Bin” which is eco friendly and cam
replace your regular plastic bins in offices or at home. We can go green saving Green (which can
mean money or plants).
Conclusion
This concept is more like recycling paper to collect more paper to recycle!!!!
Try it at home
Things you need to make “Mini Bin” is
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Old news papers, old magazines, shred mails etc
Cereal boxes(any shape and size)
Small bucket of water.
Sunny day or hair drier ;-)
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Green paint
Straws for decoration.
Patience and an urge to recycle!!!!
Chaitra Chandrashekara (Team:Mouna)