CHAKRA – HANDMADE RECYCLED CARD AND PAPER FACTORY
An industrial printer can produce one tonne of waste per month. A lot of this paper waste is currently being exported to India where is it recycled. This is due to the lack of recycling facilities on the island. My mind is often blown when visiting factories and seeing how things are actually made, this was no different. I was lucky enough to visit Chakra, a small paper-recycling factory in Makandura, a couple of hours north of Colombo.
Once the shredded waste from printers arrives, it is separated by colour and left to soak in water overnight. It is then put into the ‘beater’, this mashes it up, mixed with water to create a pulp from the discarded material.
The new pulp is then laid out on a framed mesh rectangle and evenly distributed. It is then placed on top of a textured fabric and pressure is applied to remove excess water. This laborious job is done for every sheet of card and paper and involved three people.
Once the rest of the water is extracted using a press, each sheet is hung to dry individually. Due to the pressure of the press and the paper being in contact with the fabric, the surface picks up an imprint of the weave (a doby weave in this case, if you’re asking) giving it a beautiful textured finish.
Our hand tags for The Wild Collection are made using recycled handmade card from Chakra. Ultimately we’ll be sending our off-cuts there and using them to create the hand tags for your products.
Visit their shop Chakra, 91 5th Lane, Colombo 3 for beautiful paper, cards and stationery.
