Rules for recycling waste paper and cardboard at home

by Alexey | Paper Crafts Other Workshop | Sunday, February 26, 2017

Making your own paper can be a fairly simple and easy process. This is also a great way to find a use for old receipts, waste paper lying around, unnecessary booklets, correspondence, xeroxed sheets of paper that you have long intended to throw in the trash. And instead of getting rid of these things, you can create a unique handmade item from them.

So do you have similar waste paper on hand? And also a plastic container and a kitchen blender? With just a few ingredients and simple instructions, you can easily create your own paper and become a true friend to the environment.

What are the ways to recycle waste paper at home?

By recycling, old paper can be used as recyclable material. If this technology is widely used, it will be possible to significantly reduce deforestation.

In addition, this will reduce the volume of household waste. In addition, this production method is not as expensive as others.

And although making it yourself does not require large expenses, everyone can thus make a small contribution to the conservation of natural resources.

What is made from waste paper? Here we can mention glasses, plates, napkins, containers for storing eggs, toilet paper, craft paper, insulation and much more.

Further in the material we will talk about how to make paper at home.

Shocktransfer

We would like to highlight this type of printing separately.

Chocolate transfer is a special laminated film that can transfer printed images onto a chocolate base.

Using food printing, the image is applied to the laminated part of the shock transfer sheet. There are also shock transfer sheets on the market with already prepared images or patterns. They are in our store here.

After the image or pattern has been applied to the shock transfer sheet, the sheet itself is placed face down on the culinary product. The picture is applied to the melted chocolate or, alternatively, the chocolate is poured onto the paper.

Transferring the image onto chocolate must be done at room temperature and low humidity. After the chocolate hardens, the printed image remains on the surface. It is better to use chocolate transfer paper on white chocolate, as the image is easier to see on it than on dark chocolate.

In our store you can choose a layout for printing waffle, sugar paper or shock transfer. More than 500 layouts have already been prepared. View here.

You can also create your own layout and send it to us using a special editor. Follow the link .

Materials and tools

How are raw materials processed? It’s worth starting with what you will need in your work.

You don't have to use expensive equipment to recycle paper.

All materials and tools are available to everyone:

• scissors;
• kettle;
• a saucepan in which the crumbs will be soaked;
• blender;
• a small piece of material;
• frame with mosquito net.

Reprocessing materials without the use of special equipment is quite difficult.

Therefore, before you start recycling paper at home, it is worth learning simple rules and proceeding step by step.

Thus, you can make recycled materials from 1 sheet of paper for making cards, dishes and other things.

Confectionery wafer paper

Wafer paper is an edible translucent paper made from rice flour and starch, pressed into A4 or A3 sheets. It is also called "rice wafer paper". It has no taste or smell, is very fragile, has a porous structure, and is afraid of moisture.

Wafer paper has found wide application in confectionery. It is used for printing edible pictures and photos, creating decor for cakes, cupcakes and other desserts, as well as for making toppers.

The shelf life of wafer paper is quite long. In a cool, dry, dark place it can retain its properties for up to 3 years.

Wafer paper Modecor 13503, A4, 10 sheetsPrice 282 ₽

Wafer paper Modecor 13501, A4, 10 sheetsPrice 498 ₽

Wafer paper A4, 10 sheets, ItalyPrice 309 ₽

Reprocessing Methods

If there are a lot of unnecessary paper sheets or newspapers left at home, do not rush and throw it away.

They are used to make cardboard, construction putties, and create papier-mâché crafts or wallpaper.

When craftsmen recycle waste paper, they use different methods.

The following describes the stages of working with soaked material:

1. First, you will need to sort out the raw materials and chop them: tear them and then cut them with scissors.
2. Afterwards it is poured into a container, water is heated in a kettle, and the contents are poured.
3. Next, place the pan on the stove, wait until the liquid boils, and turn off the heat. Then you should wait until the water has cooled and stir periodically with a wooden spatula.
4. Thus, when recycling waste paper, pulp is produced (cellulose mass, which is used in the manufacture of paper).
5. Then different components are added to the mixture. The composition depends on what the artist will create from recycled paper.
6. For example, when making cardboard, glue is added to the mass.
7. The finished mixture is laid out on a uniform surface, then rolled out until it becomes thin. The edges are cut with a knife. The cardboard sheet will be dense, its surface will be rough.

How are materials recycled in other ways? To do this, the following manipulations are performed: the waste is crushed into small pieces, poured into a blender, water is added and ground to a paste. Then the moisture is decanted and evenly distributed on a mosquito net or sieve. After this, the composition is compressed under pressure and allowed to dry.

As a result, the sheets will be dense and can be used to make gift wrapping and other things.

For example, various crafts, decorative saucers, three-dimensional paintings, coasters for cups or other hot dishes.

It is advisable to start with simple examples and then move on to complex ones.

Printing on wafer paper

Most often, wafer paper is used for food printing. Cakes with a printed photograph or some kind of picture are still very popular.

To print an edible picture, wafer paper is fed into an inkjet printer equipped with edible ink cartridges. It is worth noting that since wafer paper is translucent, the image on it will not be bright and, in addition, may be slightly deformed. This is fine. This defect can be easily corrected by applying a little(!) neutral gel to the picture.

Neutral confectionery gel, 500 gPrice 130 ₽

The shelf life of the waffle picture is 6 months. We recommend placing the sheet in a zip-lock bag, closing it tightly, releasing the air, and storing it in a dry, dark place.

What is produced from waste paper

Before you find out what crafts can be made from cardboard, you should familiarize yourself in more detail with the industrial processing of this raw material. It is of great importance because it allows us to save the planet’s resources, reduce environmental damage, and reduce the cost of goods.

Some of the most popular products made from recycled paper include:

• craft paper;
• insulation;
• egg packaging;
• toilet paper and rolls for it;
• napkins, cups and other paper utensils;
• corrugated cardboard.

Kraft paper

When studying what is made from waste paper, you must first become familiar with the simplest and most popular product. This is craft paper. It can be made without special equipment; this is an excellent opportunity for recycling recyclable materials at home.

Ecowool

You can also make natural insulation from waste paper - ecowool, which is widely used. It is completely safe for human health and has excellent thermal insulation properties, which has made it incredibly popular.

It is made from waste paper, which is broken into individual fibers and mixed with fire retardants, as well as other additives. The result is an environmentally friendly material with low flammability, which is especially important for use in construction.

Egg packaging

When figuring out what is produced from waste paper, you should pay attention to the packaging used for packing chicken eggs. They are made of paper fiber, the basis of which is waste paper. Thanks to careful dissolution and removal of impurities, it is possible to create a completely safe and functional product.

Toilet paper

Often, enterprises recycle waste paper into toilet paper, which allows them to obtain high-quality products at low cost. There are many benefits to using recycled materials instead of wood pulp. These include the availability of such material, ease of processing and environmental friendliness.

The mass of paper waste is thoroughly crushed, after which it is dissolved into fibers and cleaned of various impurities. To solve the last problem, catchers are used, which are an integral part of pulpers. After this, all that remains is to use special equipment for producing paper and winding it onto cores.

Paper cups

The process of making disposable tableware, in particular cups from waste paper, is in many ways similar to the previously described manipulations. Raw materials used for contact with food are thoroughly cleaned, which guarantees the safety of the finished product for humans.

The introduction of disposable tableware into everyday life has become a real breakthrough, allowing many fast food restaurants to offer takeaway meals.

Paper napkins

Paper napkins are among the products that are used everywhere in everyday life. The process of their production is similar to the production of toilet paper, but the quality of the product directly depends on the equipment used and the type of raw materials. In most cases, wipes are produced after the source material has been thoroughly cleaned to strict sanitary standards.

Cardboard sleeves

Production from old paper is not limited to the above-mentioned types of products. Toilet paper rolls are also made from waste paper. This allows you to significantly reduce the volume of raw materials required for production, as well as reduce the cost of the finished product.

Corrugated cardboard

Corrugated cardboard is one of the most popular materials used for packaging a wide range of goods. For its production, waste paper of grades MS-6 and MS-7, as well as specialized additives, is used. During the manufacturing process, the mass is crushed and broken into fibers, after which it is cleaned.

Roofing cardboard

Waste paper products are also an excellent base for various building materials. An example is roofing glassine, which is thin and durable paper with special impregnation.

It can also be used in flooring as a vapor barrier material. Its use allows you to reliably protect wood from rotting, which makes roofing cardboard incredibly popular among home owners.

Food packaging

Edible packaging paper is the latest innovation. The author of the idea is American chemist Tara McHugh. She offered the world packages that could be eaten along with the contents. At the same time, they can be tasteless so as not to disturb the composition of the main dish, or they can taste like seasoning, milk sauce, ketchup, mashed potatoes, strawberries, mango, etc.

Tara McHugh is confident that her invention is the future; it will help the world get rid of polyethylene, plastic and foil. However, there are a lot of buts: packaging is designed to protect the product from contamination and extend its shelf life. And who will monitor the expiration date of the food packaging itself? How to overcome the habit of buyers to touch goods with their hands? After all, then they will leave millions of microbes and elementary dirt on the food packaging.

In this regard, student from Kazan Ivan Zakharov went much further, who proposed using water-soluble, environmentally friendly materials rather than edible packaging. His revolutionary discovery is still at the experimental stage, but it is the future. It will take four hundred years for a simple plastic bag to decompose, but Zakharov’s film under the influence of water turns into jelly in a few hours, and after a day disappears without a trace.

How to recycle paper yourself

Reprocessing paper products seems to be a rather complex process, which is not very easy to carry out at home without the use of special equipment. However, you can make new material out of it without any effort. Recycling waste paper into paper is carried out using simple manipulations:

1. Shred paper waste into small pieces.
2. Place the raw materials in a blender.
3. Add water.
4. Grind the prepared material to a mushy state.
5. Strain out the moisture by evenly placing the waste paper on a sieve or similar object.
6. Press the resulting mass under pressure and let it dry.

The result is rough and thick paper. It can be used for packaging and various creative ideas.

What can you make from waste paper at home?

In addition to craft paper, you can actually make a lot of crafts using recycled paper, which allows you to make good use of recycled material. First of all, these are various postcards, which can differ in the impressive thickness of the sheet, which will make them unique and non-standard.

Wet technology

Alternatively, you can process secondary raw materials using wet technology. Here are the main steps of this procedure:

1. First, you need to dissolve the recyclables in a pulper. To do this, grind the material in water and separate it into fibers through a sieve.
2. Next, you need to clean the mixture from impurities. Light impurities can be removed using vibration sorting, while heavy ones can be removed using purifiers.
3. The next stage is the final clearance stage, for which entishtipers are used, that is, special equipment in the form of disk mills.

The last stage is the final purification of the finished mass. To do this, you can use conical vortex cleaners, in which the material goes through three stages of processing. The recommended concentration of raw materials for effective cleaning is 0.5%.

How to shred waste paper?

We want to start producing cat litter from waste paper. To do this, we need to make a trial batch. Naturally, we would not want to buy equipment to produce a trial batch. Please advise where and how to shred waste paper into small pieces up to 3 mm in size. sq.

I promise to provide the first sample of the product and a bottle of French wine for free to anyone who actually helps with solving this issue)

2metafora To be honest, the idea is not very good. Shredded paper is too messy, floats too easily, and doesn't absorb moisture well. Moreover, it has a bunch of foreign odors, which many animals may not like.

In general, for testing, you need an office paper shredder with a suitable cutting size.

For shredding, only paper without foreign impurities (paints, varnishes) is used; in addition, we plan to add a special filler to the mixture. Perhaps we will press the paper into cubes for greater weight.

In any case, before mass production begins, we plan to test the product on our own pets and find potential buyers