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Saturday, May 5, 2012

How to Recycle Notebooks (Reusing Paper)


If you have several old spiral notebooks lying around or you just finished with a school year and want to save a little, here’s a quick tip for recycling old notebooks.

Step 1: Remove spiral




Most spiral notebooks have metal or plastic spirals that can be easily twisted out of the notebooks. Remove this. If you are having trouble with opening the bend that locks the paper, you may use a pair of pliers of scissors to cut it off. You may now remove it smoothly.




Step 2: Gather all the blank pages

Sort the pages according to “blank”, “used back to back”, and “one side.” Gather the blank ones together for your recycled notebook. You may recycle the used ones by making your own paper (see article for recycling used paper-link) or selling them to the nearest junkshop. You may still recycle the “one sided used” papers by using the other side as scratch papers (maybe for computations or doodles.)





Step 3: Sew them together


You may use the same cover that you have used before, remake it or make a new one. Make sure the papers and covers are aligned. Sew them together with your thread and needle (or yarn and hairpin) starting from one end to the other. Sew as you would your clothes. Make sure that you sew them just right (not too tight or too lose).

You may also reuse the old spiral if it is still in good condition.

* For non-spiral notebooks, you may use a blade to cut the pages off your old notebook and use a padding glue to put them back together.




There you go! You just recycled your own notebook and helped the earth in your own little way.

A HEHE: A Healthy Earth is a Happy Earth!

Why recycle paper?”

By recycling paper, we help reduce the cutting of trees. Yes, paper is taken from tree fibres which are taken by cutting them down. A cord of wood (4x4x8) produces nearly 90,000 sheets of bond paper, according to one paper manufacturer. So yes, a tree can make a lot of papers, but do you know how long a tree plant grows to be a mature tree? It grows more than 100 years. So by doing this, we help a little, and every little help counts. Plus, we also develop a “do not waste” and a “saving” mentality.


Read more about how paper is made:

Read more comments on how much paper we get from trees:

More recycling tips:
Let's Recycle

Extra tip:
Why not place a box or have a certain area in your place where you can put reusable papers?