The young woman recycling paper to make books with plantable pages!

When Ximena Hernández learned that children at an elementary school in her native Guatemala did not have enough notebooks, she came up with a sustainable solution: making notebooks out of recycled paper.

But her idea didn’t end there. To make it even more environmentally friendly, the young woman added seeds to the pages to make them plantable. That’s how the Two Lives project began.

As a result of this initiative that she developed in her home country, Ximena obtained the Leaders of Tomorrowscholarship, which grants 100% of the tuition to study at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

“The idea came about because my mother is a teacher at a public school in Jutiapa, and she told me about the children’s need for school supplies.

“I shared this way to positively impact the environment, which benefits everyone. The name came about because we can give the material a second life,” she said.

Hernández also gave talks to a group of 30 children about the importance of the impact of paper on the environmentas part of the Two Lives project.

Ximena Hernández is studying for a degree in Civil Engineering at the Monterrey campus.

“You don’t realize how a single decision can affect your life.”

‘Planting’ environmental awareness

To develop Two Lives, the Atescatempa native conducted research on how to attach seeds to pages in order to make them plantable, and taught children how to do so too.

“I came across the term ‘plantable page’, which is a plantable paper page made from coconut fibers. This helps the seeds that are embedded in it to germinate. Although they were radish seeds in the pilot phase, they can be any type of plant.

“The page (where the seed is located) contains instructions on how to plant it. I gave a workshop to the students so they could learn how to complete the whole process,” she said.

As a result, Ximena was able to raise awareness about recycling among students at the Mixed Urban Rural School in Guatemala.

She shared that the process for making notebooks  consists of obtaining used paper, shredding it, diluting it in water, extracting the pulp, and straining it according to the dimensions of the sheet of paper you want to create.

Seeking to promote entrepreneurship

The welcome talks given to the Leaders of Tomorrow cohort inspired Ximena to turn her project into a socially conscious start-up.

“I just knew what I needed to do when they talked about it. It’s amazing because you just don’t realize how a single decision can affect your life. Creating change and sharing this information is such a great thing,” she said.

Ximena Hernández is part of the 11th Leaders of Tomorrow cohort, which is made up of 212 students enrolled at Tecnológico de Monterrey.

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