Paper Recycling Throughout History
Paper recycling
has been around as long as paper itself
Around 2,000 years ago, the Chinese discovered that they
could use a thin paste of mulberry bark, hemp and rags
to make the very first piece of paper. Take a look at
some creative papermaking and recycling throughout history.
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From
Rags To Paper
Recycling was important in colonial America. Back then,
people did not know how to make paper from wood. They
used cloth rags instead. Rags were so scarce that some
mills advertised in the newspapers to urge the colonists
to save rags for use in the paper mills. |
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A
Recycling Pioneer
Mathias Koops was among the first to investigate whether
he could make paper from cheaper, more plentiful materials.
He received three papermaking patents in 1800 and 1801.
One was for the removal of printing and writing ink
from wastepaper before it was reused. The other two
patents were for the manufacture of paper from straw,
hay, thistles, hemp, flax and different kinds of wood
and bark. |
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Ask Your Mummy
During the Civil War, rags became scarce. To get an additional
supply of cloth to make paper, Augustus Stanwick imported
mummies from Egypt to the United States. The mills made
paper out of their linen wrappings. (Don’t try this
with your mummies at home.)
Lon Chaney, Jr. as the Mummy, TM Chaney Enterprises, Inc.
1997. Photograph courtesy FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND
magazine. |
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A Paperless School
Until people learned how to make paper from wood, paper
was so rare and expensive that students used chalk and
slates in school to do their lessons. |
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Paper Fashions
and Art
Not all recycled paper comes back as paper or paper products:
• Walk on old magazines.
One company makes shoes from recycled materials, including
fiber from old magazines.
• News you can wear.
Peruvian women make rolled paper necklaces out of coiled
strips of paper cut from magazines.
• Art or trash?
Many artists use scrap material in their work. Henri Matisse
used different types of found paper and printed material
to make collages. Pablo Picasso sculpted three-dimensional heads from cardboard and collage materials.
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