Saving the earth can start with simple actions: Recycling used paper and making it more valuable!
Why Paper Recycling?
Waste is a global problem that causes environmental pollution, which disrupts human health and the survival of living creatures. Waste comes from human activities, such as plastic waste from household activities, paper waste from office activities, and many more.
The main contributors to paper waste are the household, office, and education sectors. As environmentally conscious students, we take action by recycling paper waste into reusable paper. This certainly has a positive impact on reducing paper waste, which is highly detrimental to the environment. Not only does it reduce waste, but this activity also reduces logging activities that are used to produce paper. We start with used paper that is no longer needed.
How we recycled paper
Here are the steps:
1. Collect used books/paper as project material
2. Cut the paper into small pieces
3. Soak the paper in water for about 2 hours until it becomes soft
5. Take the soaked paper and blend it with water until smooth
6. Prepare a container for the crushed paper
7. Take the melted paper, put it in the container, and add enough water
8. Make a frame according to the size you need.
9. Then print the paper using the frame.
10. After that, stick it on a piece of cloth and dry it in the sun or leave it in a room for about 2 days or until dry.
11. Remove the dry paper from the cloth one by one.
12. Repeat these steps continuously until the paper can be stacked into a book.
Book printing stage
- Press the finished paper until it is flat and neat.
- Prepare used manila paper, buffalo paper, or cardboard that can be used.
- Stick the cardboard to the dry paper to make a cover.
- Now you have recycled paper that can be used again for writing.
The Result are as Follow
Project Exhibition at School
In introducing the recycled paper project, we participated in a booth exhibition at a school event. We displayed the paper recycling process we were working on in public (at the school exhibition) along with other student products. We also had the opportunity to present this project to the public (students, teachers, the principal, and parents) so that many people became aware of the issue of waste that can be minimised by recycling used paper.
Watch a short video presentation about the paper recycling project we did at school
Watch the full video of our project below
Reflection
Many failures made us feel pessimistic during the production and printing process. But that did not discouraged us from continuing to commit and work hard so that all of that effort would not be in vain. We succeeded in making a new book from used paper. And we are very proud of that achievement.
The fastest part of the recycled paper-making process is peeling the paper off the cloth. This is the easiest and quickest part of the project.
The most difficult part is the process of printing the paper on the cloth, where we found that many of the printed papers were damaged or not printed completely. This resulted in papers of varying sizes. In fact, it was so difficult that many papers failed to be printed. However, we will do further experiments to get perfect results.
To all my friends, never be ashamed to collect used items. Who knows, this could become a new source of income if you pursue it. Keep reminding and encouraging your family, relatives, friends, and loved ones to continue protecting and preserving the environment through simple things around us. – Aprianus
Gallery
Paper recycling tutorial
Authors
Elen Six Juniar Martatini Lase
Febsanti Srimonika Zebua
Citra Jelita Lase
Aprianus Telaumbanua
Benedictus Lekmanju Ndraha
Abdi Putra Bawamenewi
Azwa Naufal Mahardika
Rania Shafia Adrevi
Ari Sukma Wulan
(Reviewed by Mei Kristiani, THE ! ambassador)
Online trial for pitching before the conference :
Sources
Philips blender, (philips.co.id)
use of Gemini Ai for support with language & text (google.com)
On-topic posts on dontwastemy.energy
☷ See the project teams here »
☵ Some words about the contributions »
☴ Our sponsors and partners » (the-horse.education)