Author: vshvrdhn

There is always a lot of clutter in our house in the form of old newspapers. Several people sell them away to petty hawkers, while others throw them wherever. It is true that the condition of the environment and ecosystem is deteriorating day by day. Excessive use of resources is creating an urgent need for sustainability. 

Recycling, reusing, and reducing the use of resources is the only way forward. Here is a step by step guide on how to make paper bags from the newspaper.

Get some old newspapers

The first step that you need to do is to collect the material required for making paper bags. Old newspapers are the best way to make paper bags because they create zero waste. You will also need a pair of scissors, adhesive glue, ropes, and colors. You can also use pages from old diaries and registers, which are of no use.  

Fold and Glue the papers

First of all, the papers must be folded over each other and then glued together. This ensures that the paper is made strong enough to carry material inside it. The sheet of paper must be folded horizontally from both sides. Glue the ends of this sheet. 

Add a layer for base

The most important part of a paper bag is its base. You can use cardboard if you need a firm base, or you can fold the newspaper backward from both ends. Corners must be folded in a triangular manner and then glued with the adhesive to seal the base. 

Fold after sealing 

Once the base has been sealed, you can proceed to the next step. Fold the bag towards the middle from both ends to create space inside. It is vital to make resistance in your bag; otherwise, it will not be able to hold things inside. This has to be done by making accordion folds at both sides of the bag. 

Punch holes at open ends 

A lot of paper bags made from a newspaper cannot hold. To make your make easy to carry, punch two holes at equal distance on either side of the bag. You can use a pen to make holes if you do not have a punching machine. Take a rope and pass it through the adjacent holes to form a loop. Do the same on the other side as well. 

Adds designs from newspapers

Who said paper bags always have to be boring? You can add beautiful designs to your paper bag made from old newspapers. Make flowers, rings, and other patterns to make them look attractive. You can also add embellishments in the form of laces and crafts or just color the entire paper bag with poster colors. 

Paper bags are a great way to live a sustainable lifestyle. It is important to declutter your home from time to time. Every time you find newspapers taking up space in your storeroom, make paper bags. One newspaper is capable of being converted into two paper bags if used efficiently. 

Sustainability is the need of the hour. If we don’t take the responsibility of saving the ecosystem and making it an environment-friendly place to live in, we are harming our future generations. Use this guide to make paper bags from old newspapers and promote sustainable development. 

FAQs

Every book lover’s worst nightmare is losing the page they were on while reading. What a pity it is to lose the connections and flow of the material you were reading. Dog-earing pages are a crime for an avid book lover, and bookmarks are the best thing that happened to a bibliophile. 

A personalized bookmark is a useful option for students, teachers, librarians, and book enthusiasts. They are therapeutic and reflective for some people due to the sentiment they carry. Reading is often a reflective time to get lost in words, and bookmarks always make you feel good.

Are you a nerd that is looking for some fun bookmarks? A number of bookmarks can be customized that contain phrases, quotes, and beautiful pictures while being conscious of your choices. Get eco-friendly seed paper bookmarks today that are made of plantable seed paper. It’s important to be environmentally conscious at this age and make better choices. It is estimated that by 2030, paper mills will be producing 500,000,000 tons of paper and paperboard each year! We cannot even imagine the waste produced and water utilized.

Plantable seed paper bookmarks are an excellent investment for every book lover. These bookmarks sprout into new plants and contribute to the zero-waste lifestyle.

What are plantable bookmarks?

Plantable seed paper bookmarks are recycled paper bookmarks that produce a new plant when planted. These are made of paper waste and do not add to the carbon footprint of the planet. Eco-friendly seed paper bookmarks are produced by shredding paper waste and unused paper. This handmade paper is mixed with an array of seeds that will germinate into new plants. 

Bookmarks are customizable, and you can get all your favorite quotes and pictures printed. A variety of plant seeds are available that will grow out of your eco-friendly seed paper bookmarks. These make excellent gifts for corporate settings and your company can make a serious impression of being environmentally conscious.

How do these plantable bookmarks work?

Made from seed papers, these bookmarks have seeds ingrained in them. Once you are done with marking books, there is no need to discard these.

The seed paper is recycled paper that is mixed with a variety of organic seeds while processing. The seeds are selected by a team of ecologists and agricultural experts on the basis of the climatic conditions of your area. From tangy tomatoes to hot chilies and aromatic herbs, you can get it all from these eco-friendly seed paper bookmarks.

After you are done using the bookmark, soak it in water poured in a shallow dish. The next morning, cut the paper with sprouted seeds into small pieces and plant them in soil. Water them and give them sun time and be delighted to see a plant sprout. Be a plant parent and promote greenery around you.

Why choose these eco-friendly bookmarks?

The usage of papers is widespread from schools and workplaces to households. Approximately 324 liters of water are used to make one kilogram of paper. Recycling one tonne of paper will help us save 26,500 liters of water and 18 trees.

Thousands of papers are disposed of each day, and they end up soaked in landfills and water bodies.  Eco-friendly seed paper bookmarks aim to reduce the stationary waste produced across the globe. These also make an excellent gift to promote an eco-friendly lifestyle. Being caring towards the hazards of pollution and looking at the dwindling dark future of planet Earth is very important.

Eco-friendly paper seed paper bookmarks are a doable step in the recycling of paper. Plantable seed paper is an added benefit. All homes need plants today, and these bookmarks serve dual purposes and are absolutely zero waste.

FAQs

Climate change today has become an existential threat, with almost all the organisms on the planet experiencing its effects. Whether it be a honey bee hopelessly searching for flowers around the slashed and burnt lands or a polar bear shifting his habitat away from the edge as the ice keeps on melting, all have fallen prey to climate change. And of course, humans, who still keep on fueling the fire by generating more plastics and setting up more slaughterhouses, face the consequences of this destructive phenomenon.

There’s no time left for us to take climate change casually. It’s high time we wake up and start working for undoing it. Each of us needs to bring sustainability to our lifestyles by opting for eco-friendly products and materials. 

Putting everything into the monstrous single-use plastic bags is not an option. Cutting down trees to produce more paper is not a good idea either. Then what should we do? Do you think that you have to do something extraordinary to undo climate change? If yes, then you probably have not heard about plantable seed paper. Keep reading. 

Seed Paper: The superhero

Yes! You have read that right. Botanical seed paper is a superhero that will help you to save the earth. Just like any other piece of paper, seed paper is biodegradable, and also, it is much easier to decompose a seed paper than the regular paper that takes no less time than plastic to decompose in landfills. 

The best part about our superhero is that it is made out of recycled paper pulp or post-consumer materials, and thus, no trees are harmed while manufacturing it. An eco-friendly paper has seeds embedded in it that can grow into full-fledged plants.

How to plant plantable seed paper?

Once you’ve made the use out of a seed paper and wish to discard it, cut it into smaller pieces, and bury them in loose, damp soil. Keep the buried paper damp by watering it regularly until you see a sapling protruding out of it. 

Multipurpose seed paper

Just like any other sheet of paper, plantable seed paper can be crafted into an endless number of items. 

• Paper bags: You can easily DIY a paper bag out of this paper by following online tutorials. These bags are an excellent alternative to regular paper bags that are hard to decompose or single-use plastic bags that are even hard to dispose of. These bags are recyclable, and that is why they also help you save some money.

• Origami: Seed paper can also be used to practice the art of origami. Square shaped sheets of this paper can be folded in several ways to make intricate designs. However, due to the slight thickness of this paper, the possibilities of the models get restricted.

• Gift wrapping: Rejecting those shiny plastic gift wrappings, you can pack your gifts in beautiful pastel colors of botanical seed paper to make it appear minimalistic, yet sophisticated. Also, by gifting a seed paper, you encourage your friends to opt for such eco-friendly materials.

• Paintings: Handmade seed paper makes an excellent canvas for you to paint or print your imagination. The texture of these papers can be used for writing, painting, or even printing with water-based organic colors. These beautiful paintings, when framed and hung, are sure to amp up the mood of your room. Just make sure that the print should not be too small to avoid the paint to bleed as seed paper is uncoated. Also, prevent letterpress, because this way, the seeds can get crushed.

FAQs

• Explore your imagination

Now that we’ve convinced you about the benefits of plantable seed paper, it is time for you to explore your creativity and imagination. Pull out those scissors or paints and make the best out of these fantastic, eco-friendly earth saviors.

The earth is dying, and with every plastic bag that you buy and throw into your dustbin, you add more fuel to the fire. In just a matter of four decades, since the invention of single-use plastic bags in 1979, the entire earth itself has been transformed into a plastic stuffed ball.

Do you know that plastic was actually invented to save the environment? Leo Hendrik Baekeland, in 1907, was a proud inventor of something that was not only reusable but also durable. In fact, it was also not made out of natural resources but human-made chemicals. However, never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that a simple upgrade in his invention would screw it all up and take a toll over our planet in such a destructive way. 

Keep reading to know why it is imperative to switch to paper bags and how you can make some for yourself just by following a few simple steps.

Single-use plastic: The ubiquitous monster

No matter how convenient life has been made with the invention of plastics, the hazards can never be overshadowed. The inability of landfill bacteria to digest plastic components is the worst part of the plastic. 

It takes about 600 years for a plastic bag to break down into smaller particles, and those are even more harmful than the whole plastic. 

Do you realize that the first plastic bag that was invented is still present on earth, deep under some landfill, the sea bed, or inside the stomach of a large fish?

Step by step process to DIY a paper bag

Follow these simple steps to know how to make paper bags:

• Take a rectangular-shaped sheet of paper of referred dimensions 19×33 inches. 

• Fold both the shorter sides of the paper up 3 inches and crease the fold. For better understanding, let’s name these two folds as fold 1 and fold 2.

• Make two more creases, each at a distance of 15 inches from the shorter edges. Let this central, 3 inches wide part be fold 3.

• Now, fold one of the longer sides 3 inches up and make 3 inches long cuts on all the creases of fold 1, 2, and 3 that fall on this fourth fold.

• Paste fold 1 on fold 2 and the overlapping parts of fold 4 on each other.

• Now take a cardboard piece and cut out a 3×12 inches rectangle. Paste this at the bottom of the bag. This cardboard will provide some amount of sturdiness and strength to the bag.

• Take a pair of strings, each about 5-6 inches long, and paste them on the open end of the bag from inside at the place of a handle. 

And voila! Your reusable handmade handbag is ready!

The different ways in which you can use paper bags 

Who says that paper bags are just meant to hold things? If made out of decorative sheets, they make excellent decor pieces.

You can make small paper bags out of different sheets of decorative papers and place them on a table or inside a sheer almirah or even hang on the wall. This beautiful storage item is sure to add aesthetic to the mood of your home.

Frequently asked questions