Newspapers often have the briefest life — read in a moment, set aside by the day’s end.
Yet in India, waste paper has long found a second life through the everyday
culture of reuse. Collected by the neighbourhood raddiwala or kabadiwala, old newspapers, books and magazines are sorted and sent on to be recycled and reworked.

At Rickshaw Recycle, we look at newspaper as a material with possibilities beyond its original purpose. We collect waste paper from homes, schools, printing presses and other sources, and transform it into handmade paper and paper yarn.

Some of these sheets become journals, notebooks and writing pads. We also collect the matrimonial pages from newspapers and use them to create wedding albums — giving these pages, which are usually read once and discarded, a lasting place in a new story. Newspaper also finds its way into our paper weaves, wall art and other objects, often retaining fragments of its original printed text and imagery.

Our exploration has grown from stationery into home décor, furnishings, accessories, hangings, woven art and even wallpaper made from strips of recycled newspaper. By weaving and reworking the paper, we give a familiar waste material an entirely new scale and purpose — from something that would otherwise be discarded to a material that can become part of an interior.