What is less than a millimetre thick... and made from trees?

What is made from trees, and often less than a millimetre thick? Have you ever thought about your paper footprint? How much paper you and your family or your classmates use every week. Can you remember the 3 R’s? This week’s challenge is to focus on paper and make sure you REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE.

Reduce – As school term starts again – can you minimise your paper usage – please only do this in agreement with your parent/carer/teacher! – Use the back of worksheets where you can? Do your rough workings on previously used paper? Write on both sides? If you’re printing make sure to use the double-sided setting? Plan your work so you don’t have lots of false starts?!

Reuse – Can you help write the shopping list on the back of an envelope you receive in the post this week? Can you wrap any presents with pages from a magazine or comic? Could you make a pile of scrap paper that can be used for lists and / or staple some pages together to make a notepad?

Recycling – Can you help keep your recycle bin clean – spilt food or liquid on paper means that it can’t be recycled. Do your toilet rolls make it to the recycling bin – can you make sure that they don’t end up in the bathroom bin if that goes with the ‘landfill’ rubbish?

Remember to HIT THE RED BUTTON when you have made that extra effort to REDUCE, REUSE and RECYCLE paper!

If you are lucky enough to have your own composting system you could feed it with some shredded newspaper, paper or cardboard (avoid shiny/glossy paper) – but don’t add too much! Paper is carbon rich, and can help build up the ‘brown’ element of a healthy compost bin – providing a source of energy for the compost microbes. The ‘brown’ balances out the ‘green’ fruit and vegetable scraps that are nitrogen rich. You could also store your cardboard for use on your garden – layered around plants it will help prevent weed growth and keep the soil moist.

There are many stages involved in recycling paper – you may be interested in this excellent 5 minute video that clearly explains how it works - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c8YxMb0tlk

Enjoy Reducing, Reusing, and Recycling paper this week, and please HIT THE RED BUTTON when you’ve made that extra effort!