While searching for ideas for a Maker project, we started to think about the food industry, specifically what we saw in grocery stores. We noticed how many things are kept in plastic clamshell containers, even things that don’t need to be, like cucumbers. We asked our parents about why they thought things were packaged this way and they said they thought it was because of how easy they are: they are stackable and protective. We knew that these containers were plastic, but they didn’t need to be. We wanted to create a new way to package these foods, without losing the convenience of the clamshell. We thought about alternatives to plastic, and paper immediately came to mind. We decided to replicate the clamshell containers we saw in the stores, but with recycled paper.
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| Our Maker Faire Booth |
The first step in our design process was figuring out our problem, which was how much plastic is used in the food industry. We then had to identify our criteria and constraints. Our project had to be under $25, so we decided to use common household items like egg carton containers and paper from the school recycling. Like all the other groups, we had a limited amount of class periods allotted to working on our project.
We composed two different prototypes for this project. The first was made of shredded egg cartons mixed with wheat paste, and the second, paper blended with warm water. We did not get a chance to revise these very much: the model with the wheat paste dried and worked properly, while the other did not. (See “challenge” below.)
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| Putting it on the screen |
One challenge that we encountered in our process was that the paper wouldn’t dry. One of our models was made of paper pulp applied to the inside of a plastic clamshell container, brought in from home. The problem was that the water would drain out of the paper and get stuck in the bottom of the container. Since it was plastic, there was no drainage, and the water was re-absorbed by the paper pulp. We called this “The Plastic Effect.” There was another group who was also making paper, and theirs was drying on cardboard. When we tried putting scraps of paper into the clamshell as a liner, it only made the problem worse. Our solution to this problem was to use different materials. Instead of using water in the paper pulp, we shredded egg cartons and mixed it them with wheat paste. This was able to dry better because the wheat paste was less liquidy and left behind more of a substance when it dried.
Our project was completely free, because we only used things that were already available to us. We brought clamshells and egg cartons in from home, and raided the school recyclings for the paper scraps. The only thing that might be an issue if you try this at home is the paper screen: we already had one at school. You can easily make one by stretching wire mesh across a picture frame or even just using an old window screen. A few links that helped us were Making Your Own Paper and Egg Carton Paper-Making.
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| First Prototype |
We learned a lot in this process. We learned about different ways to keep paper together and different forms of recycling. We also figured out a few things about what makes plastic effective. For example, in “The Plastic Effect,” the plastic is meant to be trapping liquid, which is what makes it effective for things like milk cartons and water bottles. By figuring this out, we were able to find ways to make paper more effective, even if we weren’t able to execute them in the time given. If we had more time, we would have liked to try to mass-produce our model and make it more widely available to stores. We also would have liked to try to create models of some of the things that would have made it more effective.
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