Plant fibers can be used to make a variety of products. You're familiar with cotton fabric but did you know cotton could also be used to make paper?

Plant fibers can be woven together to make furniture, baskets, or cordage (rope or twine.) See the picture below showing how to make cordage. Can you think of a plant that you could possibly use to make cordage?

Fibers from Flax are woven together to make linen.

Paper is formed from plant fibers that have been separated into a "pulp" and then matted back together into a thin sheet. Paper recycling cuts down our use of forest resources but we still have to add new plant fibers to maintain good paper quality. Why do you suppose we have to add new fibers each time?

Cotton-Gossypium species

Making Cordage
 

Flax & Linen