Water Hyacinth Series [Part 3]
Ever wondered how much cargo a tuk-tuk can carry? A staple of Kisumu's public transit system, the three-wheeler is designed for three passengers. On these streets, however, it reluctantly makes room for an extra duo by way of two seats retrofitted on either side of the rider.
Now, finding five travellers seems easy enough. Only that drivers have to spend at least an hour parked in line, waiting for their turn to load up. And an hour in the lakeside heat is a long time. Even more so if you're cooped up in what is essentially a metal can.
It's no wonder then that we find Mr Omondi, a tuk-tuk driver, in a cheerful mood. He doesn't have to wait in line; or ride around town hooting at anyone who looks to be going somewhere. Today, he has been contracted to ferry some special cargo from the lake to a workshop in the city's outskirts.
Making Lemonade
There is an old saying advising us to squeeze every drop of juice from the lemons life throws our way, mix it with water, and add some sugar to make lemonade. All around L.Victoria, the community's response to water hyacinth has been nothing short of that.
Michael says he's been in the business for 15 years. The business of what?, you may ask. The business of making lemona..., no paper from water hyacinth.
Paper is one of the most ubiquitous commodities in modern life. A world without paper would be a strange place indeed. Imagine an existence devoid of envelopes, letters, books, cardboard, tissue, receipts... And for much of modern history, wood has been the main raw material for making paper.
Supplying enough wood to meet most (93%) of the global paper demand requires cutting 4-8 billion trees each year. This practice is responsible for around 35% of the world's deforestation.
Michael doesn't disclose how much of a motivation this was in his endeavour to make paper from hyacinth. He does, however, point to the need to manage what is one of the worst weeds to float. And it just so happens that this weed has all the ingredients to make good paper.
Paper Recipe
You need cellulose to make paper. This is an organic compound forming microfibres that give green plants their structural rigidity. When plant matter is processed into a watery pulp and spread out to dry, the cellulose re-bonds with glucose into a sheet that is essentially paper.
The higher the cellulose content, the higher the quality of the paper. Trees consist of between 38% and 50% cellulose by dry weight. Water hyacinth, on the other hand, is made up of up to 65% cellulose.
There's another compound, lignin, that weakens paper over time, causing it to yellow and turn brittle. Most of it has to be removed to make high-quality paper. Trees contain about 20%-35%, while water hyacinth stems have a meagre 4%-9%. This allows for a much easier manufacturing process.
So, every two weeks or so, Michael heads to the lake to harvest water hyacinth. He's harvested quite a bounty on this day. With Teddy's help, he's able to fill three sacks and load them into the rear of the waiting tuk-tuk.
How to Craft Paper From Water Hyacinth
In his (justified) tirade against the hyacinth menace, Captain Smart, a tour guide we interviewed for our previous installment, still makes a concession.
"The only advantage is that when water hyacinth comes," he says, "I usually see some people, creative people doing art and craft with it..."
What Michael does at his workshop is an art that has taken him the better part of a decade to perfect. He begins by cutting off the roots and leaves and chopping the stems into small pieces, which are then mixed with recycled paper and tossed into a pulping machine.
The machine breaks down the mixture into a uniform pulp. Once ready, the pulp is spread on rectangular screens and put out in the sun to dry. It takes about 6 hours of the lakeside sun to turn the pulp into paper. From here, it is ready to be crafted into notebooks, cards, and other products.
And thus, a harmful weed is transformed into useful, everyday products.
Sustainable Water Hyacinth Packaging
Wild Rose's journey to sustainable packaging began when we brought you plastic-free packaging. Now, we're taking a giant step forward by partnering with Michael to bring you (soon) tree-free packaging crafted from water hyacinth.
Each box is more than cardboard – it's a hundred-year story of an ecological mistake and the disruption and adaptation following in its wake. What's presented before you is one of the many creative solutions that communities worldwide are developing to deal with the menace.
For an in-depth look at the project, here is a research paper from our sustainability research intern.
