How can schools reuse paper?

Ideas for recycling at school

Can you imagine a world without forests? Life as we know it today would disappear.  Recycling paper and other materials is essential to achieve a sustainable future and stop deforestation and climate change.

For this craft you will need paper of different colors, glue and colored markers, although the base is always the same: a square of paper that you will fold in a triangle in half several times, as shown in this post with 7 paper bookmarks for Back to School.

One way to recycle the newspapers and magazines you no longer need is to cut the sheets of paper and fold them to make strips with which you can make stars or baskets, for example. You will only need old magazines and newspapers, scissors and glue and if you want to add a touch of color, paper paint. You can see different ideas in the blog of diarioartesanal.

In addition to toilet paper rolls, you can recycle the cardboard of the kitchen paper rolls that are more elongated to make cars and other vehicles. You will only need the cardboard interior of the kitchen towel rolls, cardboard paint, cardboard, brushes, scissors and glue.

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Recycling should be a regular process, a habit already incorporated into our lives, but it is not always easy. And the fact is that habits are easier to establish from early childhood than to create them as adults. All parents want to leave a better world to their children, so a very good way is to instill in them respect for the environment and recycling so that they can preserve a better world.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) established May 17 as World Recycling Day, so that each and every one of us becomes aware that recycling the waste we generate is a way to contribute to the environment.

For a good recycling education, it is essential to transmit the basic concept of making the best use of resources. This is how the three R’s come into play: Reduce ecological waste, Reuse and Recycle as much as possible to generate the minimum waste.

It is an economic saving.  At the individual level in the family unit is economized, because if objects are reused, we do not spend money on acquiring new consumer goods. At the industrial level, cost reduction is associated with the production of new goods, since the use of recycled material often results in a lower cost than virgin material.

Activities to encourage recycling

Writing is, essentially, representing concepts graphically. Centuries and centuries after its birth in prehistoric times, we continue to write, but on different surfaces. The longest-lived of all, paper, is still used despite the appearance of digital media.

To manufacture this material, wood is used, from which the cellulose fibers that compose it are extracted. This extraction is done by grinding and dissolving large quantities of wood. The resulting fibers are mixed with water and other components to form a paper pulp. Subsequently, it will be extended and dried until the final product is obtained.

In addition, highly polluting chemical compounds are used in the production of paper, such as chlorine, which is used to bleach the sheets. For these reasons and to preserve the environment, it is necessary to look for sustainable alternatives to traditional notebooks or notepads.

The steps to follow to make your own homemade recycled paper can be found here. This homemade version can be used to take notes, make crafts or anything else you can think of. In addition, this method avoids the contamination produced by the large surfaces where paper is manufactured on a large scale.

Paper waste in schools

The above is delivered to the garbage collection service. The 3 R’s of ecology are: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle promotes 3 basic steps to reduce waste production and thereby contribute to the protection and conservation of the environment.

Schools often produce enormous amounts of waste with teaching materials, used electronics and food.  One estimate is that 24% of school waste is recyclable paper and 50% is food waste and non-recyclable paper that can be composted.  But teachers and students can work collaboratively to reduce the amount of waste produced.

First, administrators, faculty and students need to work together in recycling teams to decide how the school will move forward with its recycling program.  Students can participate in analyzing the types and amounts of waste the school produces.  Sorting and recording what is being thrown away is an important first step in determining what the school is throwing away.