MAKING PAPER
as posted on the old Beakman's World web site by Sony.com

"BALANCE MAN... ... strange visitor from this planet whose sole mission is to remind us that people and nature must stay in balance."

"And, I work for scale! Greetings, fellow Earthlings. One way to help keep the planet in balance is to recycle. Here's a way to recycle newspaper into your own personal stationary."

• Two full pages of newspaper
• A coat hanger
• An old pair of panty hose
• A blender or food processor
• Two spoonfuls of white glue
• Water
• A wad of dryer lint (optional)
• One kitchen sink

1. Carefully undo the coat hanger and make a square.
2. Stretch the panty hose over the wire square and tie knots in the ends. Clip off the rest of the panty hose. (You can use what's left over to make another square. You'll need one of these squares for each piece of paper you make.)
3. Tear the newspaper into strips and then tear those strips into tiny squares.
4. Put the pieces into the blender and add enough water to cover it. You can add some dryer lint for some texture if you want to.
5. Turn on the blender.

"Whoa! Something's not balanced here. Aha! I see you're doing this alone, without the help of a grown up type person. Big mistake. Any experiment done without taking safety precautions is way out of balance. Even things out with the grown up of your choice."

Making Paper

6. Let the blender run for about three minutes until the paper turns into a disgusting gray gunk.
7. Put a stopper in your sink and dump in the gray gunk.
8. Add four or five inches of water.
9. Add two spoonfuls of white glue.
10. Mix it up! Use your hands so it's really mixed well.
11. Put your square into the sink so it's flat on the bottom. Lift it out veerrry slooowly. Counting to twenty will help. When it's all the way out, let the water drip out for a whole minute.
12. Hang your square in the sun until it's completely dry. The tiniest bit of moisture will wreck your paper, so be patient.
13. Peel your paper off your square.
14. Do whatever paper-y thing you'd like!

"You can cut your paper or write a letter on it. You can draw on it, too. It's just like real paper. In fact, it is real paper. In fact, it's better than real paper. It's recycled paper! Every time you use something that's been recycled, you're helping to keep the planet in balance. Keep it up!"

Paper products use about 35% of the world's annual wood harvest. Every American, on the average, uses about 580 pounds (264 kilograms) of paper every year. BUT every ton of paper we recycle can save 13 to 20 harvestable trees. And that's not the only benefit! Recycling paper uses 70% less energy and 60% less water. Plus, paper mills use lots of chemicals to make paper from wood. But it doesn't take nearly as many harmful chemicals to make paper from recycled materials. So, area pollution may be reduced as much as 50%! And don't forget, since paper is the chief ingredient in solid waste landfills, we can reduce our solid waste disposal problem.

(Source: The California Department of Conservation, Division of Recycling)