Eco Paper
The team makes recycled paper by hand.
What it is
Teams make recycled paper starting from waste paper. You cut it, dissolve it in water, lift the pulp out with a frame and set it to dry. Every sheet that comes out is different from the others.
When it makes sense to choose it
It works well when you want to talk about sustainability without making a speech about it. Nobody here listens to anything about recycling: you take paper headed for pulping and you see materially what can be made from it.
It works well with mixed groups and with children too, at a Family Day, because no step is dangerous and the result shows immediately.
It works less well if you’re short of time. The paper has to be left to dry, so the finished sheet doesn’t go home with anyone at the end of the activity.
What it looks like
A video says in thirty seconds what a page explains in a thousand words: how loud it gets, how much laughing there is, what the hands are doing.
How it actually works
The first step is cutting the paper into small pieces and leaving it to soak so that it breaks down. It’s the longest and the dullest part of the activity, and it’s also the part where people talk most: their hands are busy with work that takes no attention, and the group starts talking.
Then the pulp goes into basins full of water and gets mixed by hand. With a frame that works as a sieve you lift the pulp out, let it drain, clean the edges to give the sheet as rectangular a shape as possible, and turn it out onto a stable surface. With a sponge you press the back of the frame to take out the excess water.
From there you wait. Before setting it to dry you can add colour, flowers, leaves or spices to the sheet, and that’s the moment the teams stop all doing the same thing. The day after, everybody has a sheet of paper on their desk that came out of the waste bin in the same building.
Three questions
Does it need special equipment?
No, and we bring the materials. The process is so simple that once you’ve seen it you can do it again at home.
How long does it take?
The activity itself is over in a few hours, but the sheets have to dry, so they get collected later and taken home as a reminder of the day’s work. If they’re needed for something specific, say so while the day is being designed.
Can it be done indoors?
Yes. You need water and stable surfaces to lay the sheets on, but you don’t need a kitchen or a fitted-out space.
When what surfaces deserves an afterwards
An activity surfaces a great deal about how a team communicates, decides and works together, and sometimes what surfaces deserves more time, more depth and a method. That is where a Team Coaching path can begin: a different road, to be taken only if it is needed, to turn what the day made visible into a new way of working together.
Discover Team Coaching →
Let’s talk about your next team building
You don’t need to have picked a format yet. Tell us what you want your team to take home, how many of you there are and where you’ll be, and we’ll do the rest: within 24 hours you get a considered proposal for your case, with the formats that hold up against your numbers, and what each one leaves the team the day after.
Prefer to talk? +971 50 795 9666 · info @ teambuildingincentive.ae