How To Make Recycled Paper Arizona

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Gather up old paper. Any paper that doesn't have a wax coating (such as magazines or cereal boxes) can be recycled. You can choose items that have prints and color as well. Some ideas are used line paper, computer paper, old bills that you would normally shred, envelopes, sticky notes you don't need anymore, or boxes without a waxy coating. It should be noted that items with news print (such as the newspaper or the phone book) will have a gray color. Tear your paper into small pieces. Cutting your paper will damage more fibers which you will need in order to make good paper. Because of that tearing works best. Your paper should be in 1" strips up to about 4" long. Place paper in a pan and simmer with water. You will want enough water to cover the paper about 1". Simmer it. This process only needs to take five minutes or so for lightweight paper products. Using heavier materials will require more time. Blend mixture using a blender or a food processor. Blend quickly using short sessions of ten seconds. You don't want to over-blend or it will be harder to have solid paper because the paper fibers will be destroyed. You want a thick textured goop. You should be able to spread it out to dry, so you don't want it too thin. If you want it to look like it has paper chunks in it you can blend it less. You can also add small pieces of paper to the mix (which looks great with small pieces of colored paper torn up).

Spread your paper out to dry. You have a lot of different choices for this and what you choose will lead to the texture of the paper that you make. Have fun and experiment with different types of materials for different textures.

• Traditional methods. Use a screen to spread your paper out. This can be done with a clean old screen that isn't in a window. It can also be done with a picture frame that you attach new screen (available at hardware stores) to. A framed method will let you spread the paper into a rectangle shape. Other methods will create a round shaped piece of paper with jagged edges. ...

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  Author: Danelle Karth