Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Office and IMU Sustainability Student Club continue to develop projects in order to reduce the environmental footprint.
IMU Sustainability Student Club, in collaboration with the Sustainability Office, is preparing to produce a social responsibility project in 2024 to recycle the waste paper that is collected and sorted within our campus areas. In order to achieve this goal, a “Handmade Paper Workshop with Traditional Method” was organized on December 21, 2023, within the “3rd Istanbul Medeniyet University Sustainability Week” activities, in cooperation with the Sustainability Office and Medeniyet Hamuru. The training given by paper master Nebahat KAVAK and Zeynep ARIDURU from Medeniyet Hamuru was held at the IMU Sustainability Office.
A total of 11 people, including 1 external participant, 5 staff and 5 students studying in different faculties, participated in the workshop, which was open to the participation of all Istanbul Medeniyet University students, staff and the public. In the workshop, the participants were informed about the history of paper and the traditional methods used in paper production in Anatolia, and had the opportunity to put into practice the knowledge they gained about how waste paper can be recycled and re-papered. During and after the workshop, approximately 4kg of used paper was recycled and turned into paper.
In the workshop, Nebahat KAVAK first gave information about the history of paper, showed the participants examples of paper used in different geographies from the past to the present and provided information about the production methods of each of them. KAVAK drew attention to the importance of the existence of writing in history, as well as the transfer of culture through the production of paper, and informed the participants that in England, parliamentary resolutions were written on parchment in order to transfer them to the future. At this point, she emphasized that the Turkish Islamic world has gained an important place in the art of paper, especially with the influence of art fields such as calligraphy, miniature and marbling, as well as science. She stated that plants such as mulberry, flax, hemp and cotton, which are agricultural inputs of the regions and are important sources of fiber, are used in the production of traditional Turkish paper.
After the theoretical information about paper and traditional Turkish paper production methods, the participants were informed about how waste paper can be recycled with the traditional method in line with the goal of the IMU Sustainability Student Club on recycling waste paper generated in the campus areas. In the traditional method to be used in paper production, it was stated that the method to be applied is of great importance especially in terms of resource efficiency, since reusing used paper prevents the cutting down of new trees for consumption, as well as the traditional method involves much less energy and water consumption compared to factory production. It was emphasized that the method is an important part of the circular economy with recycling and reuse. It was pointed out that it will contribute to the low carbon economy by preventing the carbon emission that will occur due to transportation, especially during the transportation of waste to waste collection areas and the transportation of new paper produced from factories to sales areas, and that it will have less impact on climate change by preventing energy consumption and thus carbon emission from both transportation and production. In addition, since the waste paper used may contain dyes, it was emphasized that the water used in paper production should not directly meet with the soil.
In the second part of the workshop, reusable paper was produced by recycling waste paper generated in the campus areas of our university. To be used in the implementation phase of the workshop, the IMU Sustainability Student Club visited the offices on our campuses before the Sustainability Week events and collected the calendars for the year 2023, which were distributed to our staff last year and will become waste by the end of the year. In order to produce new paper, the collected waste paper was first torn into small pieces and placed in water to swell the fibers. These pieces of paper were separated into smaller pieces with the help of a shredder and mixed with enough water under the guidance of our paper artisan trainers to make pulp. The prepared pulp was poured into paper-making basins, mixed with flower seeds and molded with the help of sieves. After the excess water was removed from the prepared papers, they were hung on hangers to dry. During the workshop, which lasted about 2 hours, a large number of A4 and A5 papers were produced from recycled paper, and bookmarks were also made. After the workshop, approximately 4kg of waste paper was recycled and turned into reusable paper using traditional methods with the work carried out by the IMU Sustainability Office and the IMU Sustainability Student Club.
Thanks to the workshop, in line with the zero waste policy of our university, the amount of waste production in the campus areas of our university has been reduced, while resource efficiency has been achieved by reusing paper.
You can follow the instagram account of surdurulebilir_imu to get information about the paper recycling activities of IMU Sustainability Office and IMU Sustainability Student Club and to participate in the upcoming workshops.
