How is Paper Recycled?

Have you ever looked at a package of recycled office paper and wondered how it can look so clean and crisp? Most people think recycled office paper has to be tan or gray; but fortunately great strides in the recycling industry have made remarkable advances in producing high quality, recycled content paper products.

To begin recycling paper, the wastepaper must be free of contaminants such as food, plastic and metal. Once this clean paper is separated at a recycling center, it is tightly bundled in a bailer and taken to a paper mill to be made into new products. Different grades of recovered paper are used to make various types of recycled paper products like tissue & towel products, corrugated paper, and printing and writing papers. Recovered papers move through a range of steps. First, it is mixed in the Pulper with water and chemicals. The paper is chopped and heated and broken down into fibers. The result is a mixture of mushy pulp. Next the pulp moves onto the screening phase.

During this procedure pulp is pushed through screens to eliminate bits of plastic and glue. The pulp is further cleaned through another step called the spinning process which separates out the remaining contaminants such as staples. Once the paper is cleaned, it goes through a de-inking process to eliminate any ink or sticky glues from the pulp. Color stripping removes dye from colored paper and bleaching is what makes recycled office paper so white. Most recycled papers, unlike their virgin paper counterparts, are whitened with Hydrogen Peroxide or an Oxygenation process—not chlorine. After all of this, the pulp is ready for the paper machine. It can either be used alone to create recycled content paper or blended with alternative fibers such as hemp, kenaf, cotton or other fibers to create tree-free papers. It may also be blended with virgin paper fibers to create a partial recycled content paper. After being blended with water, the pulp is sprayed onto screens and runs through a series of press rollers, followed by heated rollers to dry the paper. The finished paper is wound onto giant rolls, then cut down to smaller rolls or sheets. It is finally shipped to converting plants to be made into different paper products, including bright white recycled office paper

Because paper fibers can be recycled six to twelve times, it is advantageous for it to be collected and re-made into paper again! Approximately 80% of paper mills in the United States use some recovered fiber even in their production of new paper and paper products. So next time you have a choice of which paper to purchase reach for the recycled office paper, in particular the 100% post-consumer paper; and do your part to save the environment.

Tagged as: Paper, Recycled