Targeting a sustainable record

A local business drew some attention Friday morning after its employees sought to create the largest piece of recycled paper in the world.

All 51 workers at online retailer Green Cupboards spent several hours laying out pallets in the parking lot, then mixing shredded paper with water to create a 1,339-square-foot sheet of recycled paper.

“We’re pretty tired,” said Tove Tupper, director of communication for Green Cupboards. “We’ve been out here since 3 this morning getting ready for this record attempt.”

The idea to break a Guinness world record started with a casual conversation between Tupper and her co-workers about how much they wished they could compete in the Olympic Games.

“It kind of just snowballed from there,” she said.

James Fenske, a media relations coordinator with the company, then suggested making the largest piece of recycled paper in the world. The other records Fenske considered breaking were a little less practical, he said. Some involved eating food at an unheard-of pace or giving the most high-fives ever recorded in a stadium.

“For the food stuff, it’s like, you had to eat like five bananas in three seconds,” he said. “There’s just too much vomit involved with that.”

But paper appealed to Green Cupboards employees because it’s easy to make and it has a fairly low impact on the environment, Fenske said.

“We’re using all recycled paper from local businesses and residents,” he said.

Green Cupboards is an online retailer of environmentally friendly products. It recently moved to the McKinstry Innovation Center, a technology incubator located in McKinstry Station.

Fifteen official witnesses and two independent surveyors kept watch to ensure the paper did establish a new record.

About 800 pounds of pre- and post-consumer paper went into the giant piece stretched across 90 wooden pallets.

The final product will be about seven-eighths of an inch thick when it dries. Then, the sheet will be cut into pieces and used mostly as mulch for planting seeds in gardens, but the company will also keep a piece in its office to reinforce Green Cupboards’ core values, Tupper said.

“The public is welcome, once it’s cut up and dry, to stop by our office and pick some up,” she said.