Grass Sheets

We wish to bring about multiple changes. Firstly, we want to increase awareness about our grass paper as an alternative to regular paper. We want to educate people about how our grass paper would have less of an environmental impact in comparison to regular paper. Secondly, we hope to see a reduction in deforestation. By promoting grass paper, we aim to reduce the reliance on traditional paper that is produced by trees. This can reduce carbon emissions and conserve biodiversity. Lastly, we want our grass paper to be integrated into regular, daily life. We would hope that people would be in favor of using grass paper for everyday purposes such as packaging and wrapping instead of regular inefficient paper

Our Social Issue

We wish to address the issue of the key flaws that traditional paper has. Traditional paper making relies heavily on cutting down trees. This process wastes a huge amount of time, work, and resources. This process is clearly not sustainable and is a key factor contributing to deforestation. And this ultimately leads to habitat loss and higher carbon emissions. By creating grass paper, we are promoting an eco-friendly alternative. Grass grows faster than trees, which would ultimately make it more sustainable than regular paper. We also want to address the issue of the importance of reducing waste in terms of grass. According to statistics, 100k tones of green waste is disposed of each year. This is mainly because people dump their green waste in black bins, where they don’t belong. By putting your green waste in the black bin, you are sending your waste to be landfilled, where during its breakdown, it'll produce gas and leachate which must be collected & treated, therefore making landfills more difficult to manage.

Why We Chose It

We chose the issue of the harm of traditional paper production and the harm of grass waste. We chose these issues due to the negative impact they have on the environment. Traditional paper production causes deforestation, emits Carbon Dioxide and it requires a high resource usage. These impacts severely contribute to global warming and climate change. At the same time, grass waste is a massive problem. When grass is cut, it is often left discarded to rot. To tackle both of these issues, we used the grass waste to make a sustainable paper alternative.

Our Goal

Our big idea for YSI is Grass Sheets, sustainable paper made of grass acts as an alternative to traditional paper. We are repurposing discarded grass clippings because we aim to reduce deforestation, lower carbon emissions and resource usage. Our main goal is to prove that grass paper can be used as a viable and environmentally friendly alternative. We also aim to address the problems of traditional paper production and grass being wasted. What makes our project unique is its innovation in transforming a wasted material into an efficient sustainable product. Products such as bags a jacket and others were created.

Our Innovative Action

Grass Sheets is a sustainable project that turns discarded grass clippings into a sustainable paper alternative. We created many products such as bags, fashion items, and some arts products. We took part in many experiments to ensure that our grass paper was both sustainable and effective. We raised awareness for our project by giving many presentations to other classes in our school. We collaborated with Offaly County Council and Tullamore Pitch and Putt club to secure grass for our project. We fundraised for our project through bake sales and by receiving funding from the YSI den.

Our Impact

We have made a positive difference by offering an alternative for traditional paper production and reducing CO2 emissions. We have developed packaging with our grass paper and have so far made bags, clothing items and some art items. From making the grass paper, we have made a positive difference because we used less resources than resources used in traditional paper production. We have also made a positive difference by giving presentations based on our project. These presentations helped educated the public.