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Tuesday, June 3, 2008

HERE ARE SOME PICTURES THAT WE TOOK WHEN MAKING PAPER

These are the things needed:

1 : Shred the tetra-paks into tiny bits

2: Soak them in a basin of water for about 4 hours

3: Blend the mixture in a blender till mushy

4: Spread the pulp on the wire mache and wait for it to dry for at least a day

5: When it is semi-dry, flatten it with a rolling pin or hot iron

6: When it is dry, you are free to shape it and make your desirable objects ^^

Proposal

Introduction
Around the world, there are disasters like droughts and floods that occurred because of our irresponsible actions. These disasters should not be happening and we can all do our part to prevent these disasters from occurring and also to treasure our Earth (deforestation, wastage of resources). Everyday in our school, there are lots of Tetra-paks being thrown away. These should not be happening as the Tetra-paks can be recycled and made into recycled paper. We should recycle them as they are useful and are able to be made into a lot of things. We want to tell people that everyone can save the Earth, regardless of race, language or religion.

Aims of our Proposal
Our aim is to educate the school and public on the importance of saving the Earth. We want to tell them that we are able to save the Earth if everyone works together and do their part in conserving the Earth. We also want to tell them that not everything has to be thrown away, which is very wasteful. Another important thing is that it is easy to throw away something, but it is not easy to manufacture the thing that is being thrown. Basically, it is to tell them not to waste things and to treasure the Earth.

Our Idea
The first step that we will be taking is to place bins around the canteen to let the students throw the Tetra-paks for recycling. We will be holding a competition called 'Design Your Own Bins'. Each class will have to submit at least 1 bin that the class has designed. The top 5 bins will be chosen to be placed in the canteen and prizes will be given for the most attractive bins and the most supportive class. We want to involve more people in our programme and to make sure that they know the consequences if they continue to waste things that are recyclable.

Another competition that we will be having is to design a poster to be placed on the class noticeboard to remind the class to save the Earth. Each class will have to submit at least 1 poster. All posters collected will be put up on an exhibition held in the concourse. Prizes will be given to the most attractive posters and also the most supportive class. Tetra-paks will be thrown into the specially designed bins. Half of the collected Tetra-paks will be sold to recycling companies. The other half will be made into paper for sale as greeting cards and bookmarks. All money collected will be given to the needy pupil fund. We will be having a workshop called 'Use Your Hands'. Through the workshop, students will be able to make their own paper from Tetra-paks. The students then can take home their own paper and also learn to practise recycling as paper making is a very tedious process.

These are the things needed to make paper from Tetra-paks :
1. Tetra-pak
2. Blender
3. Water
4. Rectangular Basin
5. Spoon
6. Window Screen
7. Towels
8. Iron

Procedure to make paper from Tetra-paks:
1. Flatten the Tetra-pak and soak it in water.
2. Peel or scrape the paper from the aluminium and plastic.
3. Tear the paper into fine pieces.
4. Pour it into a blender and blend it until it turns into pulp.
5. Pour the pulp onto the window screen / permeable material and place it over a basin to collect the water that is filtrated from the window screen.
6. When it is semi-dry, flip the window screen onto a piece of towel. Use a rolling pin and remove the remaining water from it.
7. Leave it to dry for at least 24 hours.
8. Once it is dry, it is ready for use. =)

Other things that we will be hosting
We will also appoint a class each week to stay back after school to separate the Tetra-paks from the plastic and straws. We will talk to the principal to ask if CIP points can be given to classes that stayed back to separate. We are going to make a schedule to inform which class will be staying back each week. We choose to involve more students as these will tell them the importance of saving the Earth and also to give them some hands-on experience.

Future Plans
If the campaigns and the competition that we have for the school succeed, we are going to try to go into the neighbourhood to test out our programme. Like putting recycling bins and posters around the neighbourhood and invite members of the public to come to our school to learn how to recycle paper from Tetra-paks. Hopefully, the students will be able to spread the message to their parents, friends and relatives about our programme and also to tell them how to save the Earth. At the end of the programme, we are going to conduct a survey at the school's learning portal (http://jvs.commontown.net/) for the students and teachers to comment on our programme and how we can improve on it. Hopefully, with the comments, we will be able to educate more people and to make the world a cleaner and better environment.

Conclusion
We think that this project will have a great impact on the members of the public and our schoolmates as this involves them in various hands-on activities like ‘paper recycling’ and designing of recycling bins. Therefore, we will be implementing this project and we hope to make a difference to the environment.