Self-Adhering Wrapping Paper Made from Waste Tea and Apple Cores

I did some experiments to see if I could make materials from waste tea and sugar streams. I explored waste sugar sources such as rotten fruits, fruit peals, wasted food, etc. The following material made from a waste stream of wasted apples and used tea produced a thick leathery paper like material that can self adhere with slight application of moisture and pressure. The material is not sticky to the touch and can be dyed with food coloring. These properties have not been explored systematically. Here are the steps used for the process:

Process:

1) wash a plastic bin with soap, water, a few water rinses and then boiling hot water to remove all bacteria and residues.

2) one half eaten apple with 4 tables spoons of used tea leaves(leaves that had already been used for one brew and had bits of flavoring such as ginger and fennel) was added to a composter ( Food Cycle) to remove any germs. I would like to try other more accessible sterilization methods such as only boiling, or using UV light). The composter also grinds the sugar stream to a powder. A simple grinder should be able to achieve a similar consistency.

3) The powder from the composter was then steeped in 3.5 cups of water(I used filtered water from the tap- I live in Bangalore where you get pretty clean Kaveri water. I havent analysed the trace minerals in the water) for 10 min.

4) This liquid was strained and 2 cups of cool water was added to the liquid and put in the clean plastic bin.

5) Once the liquid cooled to about 80F, 1 Cup of Kombucha(Dad's hack's darjeeling).

6) The liquid was left to sit for 7 nights and a thick SCOBY formed on top of the liquid layer:

7) I then tried to dye this layer while still moist with food coloring(Papilon Brand):

8) I tried making layered structures while still wet(these didnt dry well) The flat regions did retain the color well.

9) Flat dried sheets I found worked well as a self-adhering wrapping paper. The paper was not sticky to the touch, but slight moisture and pressure allowed one to self-adhere the paper(like the adhesive on envelopes).