Cardboard to Plant Pots by Recycling Waste Paper Into Environment Friendly Product

With an objective of effectively using cardboard while making sure that this use of cardboard does not cause harm to the environment, I came up with this simple and effective method of converting waste cardboard boxes into plant pots which are recyclable and a safe way to recycle waste cardboard. This approach can also be applied to waste paper. I chose cardboard because it is more tricky to handle and newspaper or printed paper has chemicals within the ink which are potentially harmful to plants and soil.

You will need the following

1. Waste Cardboard box ( Remove packaging tape and other stickers )
2. Fine flour ( i.e with minimum granules )
3. (Optional) 3D prints for provided files
4. A vase or reference shape for making our pot ( Alternative to 3)
5. A blender and supporting container
6. A Guardian/helping hand in case you are not confident with handling a blender

Shred the cardboard box to pieces of roughly 2cmx2cm. This can be done using a pair of scissors or simply by hand

Now add these cardboard pieces to a container and blend with ample water. There are no rules on how much water should be used, just make sure that the cardboard pieces are completely submerged within water. This ensures a finely blended paste of cardboard pulp

The ratio of Carboard pulp to flour should ideally be 2:1, which means for a cardboard waste of 200gm ( without water ) should be mixed with 100gms of flour. Similarly a 70gm of cardboard waste, 35gm of flour will be ideal

Further pour this pulp/mixture into our 3d Printed mold or any suitable container and wait for at least 36 hours for the drying procedure. Make sure to place some weights on top of the mold to help drain as much water as possible.

Here is a reference to the macroscopic view of cardboard : https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Cross-section-of-a-cardboard-sample-sample-without-ultrasonic-assisted-embossing-a-in_fig5_341458925

Now you can select from multiple types of seeds which are available on online marketplaces or from your nearest plant nursery. Further you can also use essential plant bio-fertilizers, such as a NPK solution ( Completely Optional )

With these steps our plant pot is ready to help grow our plants of choice, once the plant starts outgrowing the pot you can bury the entire pot into soil, the cardboard layer will slowly decompose off and your plant will keep on growing.