Products Paper

Unlike the process of making paper from virgin materials, making paper from waste paper rarely requires chemical pre-treatment. The waste paper is mixed with water in a machine that looks like giant blender and converted into a thin slurry of individual fibres. This slurry is treated to remove contaminants such as plastic, string and paper clips using sophisticated screening techniques. It is then made into paper in the same way as making paper from virgin material.

According to the Industry Commission, there are some limitations to paper recycling. "Paper can be recycled into a wide variety of paper and other cellulose products. Contamination problems limit its reuse in food packaging such as milk cartons, and the degradation of fibres (during recycling) mean that used paper is generally 'down graded' as it is recycled. Thus, old newspapers cannot be used to produce high quality printing and writing papers, but they can be used in applications requiring mechanical pulp, such as newsprint and tissue."

The degradation of fibres during recycling also limits the number of times that a particular paper fibre can be recycled. Adding some virgin fibre or good quality waste fibres to the recycled pulp can improve the quality of the recycled product.

News

26 January 2008

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