EXPERIMENT 11

MAKING NEW PAPER FROM OLD

THINGS YOU NEED: Newspaper. Mixing bowl. Electric mixer or egg beater. Tablespoon of wallpaper paste or laundry starch. Section of window screen. Cake pan. Waxpaper. Drinking glass or jar.

Paper and paper products make up about 40 percent of the solid waste produced by America’s cities and towns. So you can see that recycling paper waste makes good sense.

Look at what recycling saves: Only one-half of the energy is required to produce paper from paper waste rather than from trees. In addition, recycling one ton of paper waste conserves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, and 3 cubic yards of landfill space.

This last item is particularly important. U.S. landfills are closing at the average rate of one a day. Recycling should help slow down this alarming trend.

All right, let’s roll up our sleeves and see if we can demon-strate the general principle behind recycling paper waste . . . in this instance, old newspaper.

Here we go. Cut into small pieces a 12-inch by 12-inch section of newspaper. Put these pieces into the mixing bowl, and add a cup of warm water. Let the paper soak for a little while.

The next step is going to be slightly messy. So either in the laundry room or outside the house, start churning the paper and water with an egg beater or electric mixer. Keep this up until the paper breaks up into oat-size pieces. In fact, the mixture will look something like rolled oats cereal.