Did you know? The first Earth Day was planned as a gathering of people, a demonstration, to encourage people to be more involved in conservation and aware of what was going on with our planet. It was held on April 22, 1970. In 2021, it will be the 51st celebration of Earth Day!
Earth Day promotes sustainability and encourages people to consider their impact on our planet. One way to do that is to reduce, recycle, and reuse materials. We’re focusing on paper today!
Here are some paper facts:
- Approximately 1 billion trees worth of paper are thrown away every year in the US
- Recycling a stack of newspaper just 3 feet high saves one tree
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 7,000 gallons of water
Let’s Make Paper!
Supplies:
- Scrap paper
- Check out your recycling bin (clean papers only!)
Can be newspaper, old construction paper, small scraps of used paper. (even if it has writing on it!)
- Check out your recycling bin (clean papers only!)
- Water
- Large bowl
- Immersion blender, magic bullet or blender
- Grease splatter screen
- Baking tray with a rim
- Heavy pie plate, tin or bowl
- Large spoon
- Sponges and or towels
Process:
- Cut or rip up scraps of papers into small pieces (1/2 inch squares or smaller) and drop them into a large bowl.
- Cover the scraps with water and let soak for 2-3 hours or until they are soft and mushy.
- Use the immersion blender in the bowl, or pour the mixture into a blender or magic bullet.
- Blend into a mushy slurry. Add more water if it is too dry.
- Place the splatter screen onto the baking tray with the rim so that it sits on top of the tray rim.
- Scoop out the globs of pulp, trying to not get too much water. Drop the pulp onto the screen and push it all together to ensure there are no open spots. The shape doesn’t matter, just make sure to fill in all of the open spots.
- Push down on the pulp to squeeze out the water and flatten out the paper as best you can – but don’t make it too thin.
- Place a heavy pie tin or bowl on top of the paper to squeeze out the water as best you can.
- You can help the paper to dry out by using a hair dryer or you can just let the paper dry out on its own.
- You can also transfer the paper onto a paper towel and put a piece of waxed paper on top of it and lay a heavy book on it to keep it flat and help it to dry.
- It can take a few days for it to completely dry.
Note: If you want to add flowers, leaves or seeds add them on while the paper is still wet.
Now what!?
- Once your paper is completely dry, you can use it as regular paper! It won’t be as smooth as store bought paper, but you can still us it for writing letters, notes, lists, etc. You can also use it for making art!
- If you added seeds to your paper, you can “plant” your paper in your garden or anywhere you want to have a burst of color!