Chapter I

THE PROBLEM & BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Introduction

Tissue paper is a necessity in our day-to-day life. Tissue paper is undoubtedly one

of the most commonly used items that have been preffered in almost every household.

It has many uses especially for cleaning and hygiene of one's self. It’s used not only

for bathroom hygiene, but for nose care, wiping up spills, removing make up, and

small bathroom cleaning chores. Tissue papers are sanitary papers and personal

products. They are marvelously efficient at supporting hygiene by preventing the

spread of dirt, germs, bacteria, viruses and diseases. Global health experts say hygiene

is the number 1 factor in human health worldwide. They’re made from any type of

pulp, including reclaimed paper stock and may be glazed, unglazed or creped.

Toilet paper is generally made from new or virgin paper, using a combination of

softwood and hardwood trees. Softwood trees such as Southern pines and Douglas firs

have long fibers that wrap around each other which gives paper strength. Harwood

trees like gums, maple and oak have shorter fibers that make a soft paper. Toilet paper

is generally a combination of approximately 70% hardwood and 30% softwood.

Other materials used in manufacture include water, chemicals for breaking down

the trees into usable fiber, and bleaches. Companies that make paper from recycled

products use oxygen, ozone, sodium hydroxide or peroxide to whiten the paper.

Virgin paper manufacturers, however, often use chlorine dioxide, which have been

identified as a threat to the environment (Thompson, 2001). Recycled fibers also play

an important role as a raw material for tissue paper products, making up around 35%
of the all fibers going into tissue production globally (O’Brian H., 2018).

The researchers observed that the stem of the water hyacinth are rarely

recognized despite of its many uses. Water hyacinth was introduced into many parts

of the world, including the Philippines, as an environmental garden pond because of

its beauty.

The operations of a Filipino inventor were observed with a view toward

determining the technical- economic potential of his water hyacinth utilization

concepts if the highly fibrous portion of the plant were separated from its other

components (Hillman, 2001).

Thus, with the high demand for tissue papers and high amount of unnecessary

wastes in the country because of water hyacinth, the researchers thought of

conducting an alternative environment- friendly tissue paper using water hyacinth

stem as its main source of fiber to help lessen the amount of unnecessary wastes and

also the excessive cutting of trees for the production of tissue papers.

Research Design

The design used in the study is the experimental research design, particularly the

complete randomized design. The plant used in the study is the water hyacinth

(Eichhornia crassipes) stem. These were obtained from Pengue Ruyu, Tuguegarao

City. The water hyacinth stems were gathered, washed, boiled, dried and pulped.

Three (3) liters of water were added in a pot and made to boil. As the water boiled, 2

kilogram of water hyacinth stem was added and further boiled for 30 minutes. After

thirty minutes, the stem were drained and sun-dried.

Pulping

a. After drying under the sun,the water hyacinth stemswere gathered and placed in

a pot together with one- half (½) cup sodium bicarbonate with and (2) liters of water.

b. When the dried water hyacinth stem became soft, these were removed using

tong and solid materials were separated.

c. After separating, the processed water hyacinth stem were washed using clean

water and bleached it with 1 cup chlorine powder overnight. The bleached stems

were reduced in size.

Molding

a. Two liters of water was boiled in a cup, and one-half cup cornstarch was added.

After boiling, the water hyacinth pulp was added and stirred well.

b. The molder was placed in the basin with the pulp, screen side down. The pulp

was spread well and leveled the pulp while the molder was submerged.

c. After submerging the pulp was placed on a dry clean cloth to absorb extra

moisture and blow-dried to totally dry the finish product.

To determine the absorbency capacity of the water hyacinth stem tissue, we used

beaker and graduated cylinder.

a. Beakers and other materials were washed and air-dried.

b. 50 ml of water were put on each beaker equally(two beakers). One beaker is for

water hyacinth and the other beaker is for commercial tissue paper.

c. Both treatments were soaked in each of their corresponding beaker at the same
time for five seconds then let it drip for five seconds and then put into plates.

To determine the absorbency level of water hyacinth stem tissue compared to

the commercial one, the researchers used Paired T-test at 0.05 level of significance.