Recycle Your Own Paper

Have you ever wondered how recycling can turn old, used newspaper or magazine pages into fresh new paper? Learn how and try it for yourself by following these simple steps.

What You Need:

* Old Newspaper or Magazine Pages
* Sponge
* Window Screening
* Old Wood Picture Frame
* Plastic Tub
* Blender
* Felt
* Staples or Tacks

1. Tear It Up: Take your magazine and/or newspaper pages and tear them into small pieces. One-inch squares is good, but the smaller the pieces the better.

2. Blending, Blending, Blending: Add your paper pieces to the blender until it is about half full of torn paper. Fill the blender about ¾ full with warm water. Run the blender for about 45 seconds. You’ll want to run it slowly at first then faster until the pulp looks smooth and well blended.

3. Make Your Mold: Your homemade mold will be made from the window screen and old picture frame. To do this, stretch the window screen over the picture frame and staple or tack it down securely. The screen should be as tight as possible.

4. Mix It Up: Fill your plastic tub with water until it is about half full. Add 3 blender loads of pulp and stir it into the water.

5. Submerge Your Mold: Dip your window screen and picture frame mold into the pulp and then level it out while it is submerged. Carefully wiggle it side-to-side until the pulp on top of the screen looks even.

6. Wet Paper: Slowly lift the mold out of the water. Wait until the mold and pulp is dripping very little before moving on to the next step.

(Note: If the paper seems too thick, remove some pulp from the tub. If it seems too thin, add more pulp and stir the mixture again.)

7. Squeeze Extra Water Out: When the mold stops dripping, hold the mold with one hand and cover the wet pulp completely with a felt or flannel square.

Flip the felt, pulp and mold over so that the felt is on bottom and the mold is on top. Use a sponge to press out as much water from the pulp as possible. Wring the excess water from the sponge back into the large plastic tub.

8. Flat Pulp: Hold the felt square flat and slowly lift the edge of the mold. The wet sheet of paper should stay on the felt. If it sticks to the mold, you may have pulled to fast or not pressed out enough water.

(Note: This step is a little tricky and can take some practice to perfect.)

9. Repeat: Repeat the steps above until your pulp runs out. Stack the fabric squares on a cookie sheet so that you’ll have a pattern like this: felt, paper, felt paper, felt, paper.

Make sure you have one felt square to cover the last piece of paper. Press out any remaining water using another cookie sheet.

10. Finish Up: After you press the excess water out, separate the sheets of paper carefully. Lay each piece (still stuck to the felt) on sheets of newspaper. Wait for them to dry and peel off the felt.

Congratulations! You’ve recycled your very first batch of paper!

Tips:

1. When blending your paper into pulp, if there are still paper flakes after 45 seconds, blend your mixture a little longer.

2. If you are looking to make your paper thicker or thinner, use more or less than 3 blender loads of pulp in your tub of water.

3. It's probably a good idea to squeeze out the last bit of water in the kitchen sink or bath tub because otherwise it could make a very big mess.

4. After you've gotten the hang of this recycling project, try it again using different kinds of paper. See what kinds of paper you can make if you tear up tissue paper, egg cartons, old cards or even colored construction paper.