If each child saves one sheet of paper a day, then 40,000 trees are saved per year by students alone!
It is with this mission that a few schools in Delhi have installed the TARA Mini Paper Recycling Plant with support from Department of Environment, NCT Delhi. The students have done significant work in reducing the paper waste generated in their schools. Secondly, the students themselves are involved in the recycling process, which helps in understanding the various resources and efforts put in for making paper.
The TARA Mini Paper Recycling Plant is an appropriate system to turn waste paper, cotton rags and other such waste into paper for all purposes. The plant is based on an effective and yet simple technology, with which even a child can turn waste paper and cotton rags into valuable products.
The plant is a self contained system for recycling small quantities of waste material i.e. upto ten kg per day. The basic raw material for manufacturing hand made paper comprises cotton rags, denim waste, waste paper and draft waste. The various steps involved are sorting, chopping, dusting, pulping, sheet formation, pressing, drying, calendering and cutting.
Students are also trained on making paper products like folders, penholders, material for display board, lampshades, teaching/learning aids etc. Students have creatively made their own cards, files, folders, invitation cards and certificates for the school. Working on a paper recycling plant demonstrates the concept of recycling waste into ‘wealth’.
The real success of the programme is visible in the seemingly simple acts like: students exchanging books in a new academic session, indirectly saving paper and thereby trees. Students of various Delhi schools have been enthusiastically involved in segregating paper waste, collecting and recycling the same. The Department of Environment, NCT Delhi has also helped some environmentally active schools like Green Fields School and many others to set up the plant.