Little Manya calls herself a sustainability influencer. She is an active volunteer at various green initiatives and is working towards bringing a positive change to the waste management system in India.

Manya is a Class 6 student at Vibgyor High BTM, Bengaluru. She loves spending time campaigning for nature conservation. She has been brought up in the green surroundings of her grandmother’s house. This inculcated in her immense amount of love for nature. As she grew up, Manya started hosting walkathons for children. She also went on to create a blog to make people aware of environmental conservation. Not just that, Manya has even authored five books with the theme of nature. Recently, the little girl hosted a cleanup drive at Markonahalli Dam & Varca beach to fight the problem of incessant garbage pollution. She was also recognized by the India Book of Records for being the youngest to make animated short films to spread awareness on environmental issues in 2020.

Her Idea Of Creating Eco-Friendly Paper From Kitchen Waste

While growing, Manya realized that the city was struggling with the problem of garbage. She was sure about doing something regarding it. The idea of making eco-friendly paper out of the kitchen waste clicked her during the course of her Summer holidays. This out-of-the-box idea helped Manya in saving tonnes of trees at zero cost. This method can be used to make around 2-3 A4 size papers just by using 10 onion peels.

Talking about the same, the young girl said, “I wondered what else could be done with all the kitchen waste generated at homes and finally decided to try and recycle it into paper.”

Manya also shared her first experience of making this unique paper. She revealed how her first attempt was a disaster. But through sheer perseverance, she kept on trying to achieve the perfect texture and color of sheets. “Eventually, you can go on to use the beautiful flower petals left behind during the festive season or even the lush green betel leaves for some soft textured paper,” she advised.

The young environmentalist also shared the five simple steps on how to make paper from vegetable peels.

• First, gather the peels of any vegetable you want to make the paper of. Manya suggested using specific peels to get the desired colored paper. For instance, onion peels would make a purple-colored sheet while corn husk would make a rough yellow one.
• The next step is throwing the peels into a cooker along with water and a spoon of baking soda. Let it be on the flame for about 3 hours. “The baking soda helps break down the pulp,” reveals Manya.
• After 3 hours of cooking, transfer the compound into a liquidizer and grind it to get the pulp. This pulp is to be mixed with fresh water.
• Take the pulp mixture and spread it on a flat surface. Make sure that all the excess water is drained out of this mixture. This can be done by spreading it on a sieve or thin cotton cloth.
• Leave the spread overnight for it to set. The next morning, your sheet of colored paper should be ready to be used.

We loved the idea that this little girl came up with. Wishing her luck to achieve more success in the field.