This Month's Features - May 1999

This is a new section here at "Recycling Rules!!" Every month, we will feature new fun facts, a new featured web site for you to visit, and a long feature article, craft, idea, or information. At the end of the month, we will add some of the fun facts to our Fun Facts Page and the web site to our Links Page, if it's not already there. Don't hesitate to tell us what you think about this new page; see our Talk To Us page to e-mail us.

Featured Fun Facts

* When you are smelling a dump, the smell you're smelling is the paper in the dump. Almost 40% of a dump is paper!.

* In the past, people didn't have much aluminum. At one time, it was more valuable than gold!

* Each year, Americans throw away enough trash to make a 10-foot-high mound covering an area of almost 19,000 football fields!

* McDonald's saves 68,000,000 pounds of packaging per year just by pumping soft drink syrup directly from the delivery truck into tanks in the restaurant, instead of shipping the syrup in cardboard boxes!

* In the 1980s, only 10% of our trash was recycled. Today, this number is about 25%.

Featured Web Site

Earth's 911

Earth's 911 is the nation's official, 24-hour public service, providing community-specific environmental resources, including information on recycling, disposing of hazardous household products, composting and energy conservation. Information from all 50 states, and thousands of community hotlines, have been brought together so you can access this environmental information, specific to your community, with one toll free phone call or web visit. Call 1-800-CLEANUP or surf www.1800CLEANUP.org and help us Make Everyday Earth Day.

If you would like your site featured here, please e-mail us its URL and a description of it. Send it to us at Ramola15@aol.com.

How To Make Your Own Recycled Paper

FEATURED EXPERIMENT

This experiment comes from 50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth, which is included on our Where To Write To Page.

MATERIALS:

WHAT TO DO:

  1. Tear the 2 or 3 sheets of newspaper into tiny pieces.
  2. Put the pieces into the blender.
  3. Pour 5 cups of water into the blender, and put the lid on.
  4. Turn the blender on for a few seconds, or until the paper is turned into pulp.
  5. Pour about 1 inch of water into the pan.
  6. Pour the pulp from the blender into a measuring cup.
  7. Put the screen into the pan.
  8. Pour one cup of the pulp over the screen.
  9. Spread the pulp out evenly in the pan with your fingers.
  10. Lift the screen out of the pan (the pulp should be on it) and let the water drain off.
  11. Open the newspaper section to its middle page.
  12. Place the screen (with the pulp still on it) on the newspaper.
  13. Close the newspaper like a book around the screen and pulp.
  14. Carefully flip the newspaper section over so the screen is on top of the pulp.
  15. Place the board of wood on top of the closed newspaper and press down to squeeze out extra water.
  16. Open the newspaper and take out the screen.
  17. Leave the newspaper open and let the pulp dry for at least 24 hours.
  18. The next day, check to make sure the pulp is dried into paper.
  19. If it is, carefully peel it off of the newspaper.
  20. Enjoy! The paper should work just like a normal piece of paper!

If you would like to write an article, experiment, craft instructions, or some fun facts that we can feature here, send it to Ramola15@aol.com. Be sure to include your name so we can give you credit!

Return to Recycling Rules!!