Paper Recycling

Before We Start: In order to be successfully recycled, recovered paper should be free from contaminants, such as: food, plastic, metal, and other trash, which makes paper di cult to recycle.

How does it work?

Re-Pulping After being stored until needed, the old paper is transported to a large vat called a pulper which contains water and chemicals. The pulper is like a giant mixer that chops the old paper into small pieces. Heat is applied to the mixture which breaks it down further and leaves us with a mushy mixture called pulp.

Screening The pulp is then forced through screens that strain out small contaminants like bits of plastic or glue. * It is important to note that this process is done by machine, not hand. Jill the recycling doodle was just a little over zealous.

Cleaning The pulp is then spun around in a large cone-shaped cylinder which cleans it by throwing large debris like staples outside of the cone and forcing small debris to the middle where they can be easily removed. 5 points for physics!

Deinking Pulp made from paper that contained marks often goes through a pulp laundering process called deinking in order to remove printing ink and/or sticky materials

Re ning During this process the pulp is beaten to make the recycled bers swell so they are ready for paper making. *Again, this would be done by a machine, not by hand!

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Note: The pulp may be bleached or dyed before the paper making process depending on the end paper product desired.

Papermaking Once the pulp is ready to become paper it is mixed with water (and possibly some new wood ber) until it is 99.5% water. This mixture is sent through a series of drying processes which squeeze out excess water so the paper bers can bond. After that, the sheet (which will now resemble paper) passes through a series of heated metal rollers that nish drying and attening the new paper. The paper wraps up onto a giant roll and is ready to be cut and distributed.

- One ton of recycled paper saves 3,700 pounds of lumber and 24,000 gallons of water. - One ton of recycled paper uses: 64% less energy, 50% less water, 74% less air pollution, saves 17 trees and creates 5 times more jobs than one ton of paper products from virgin wood pulp. - Recycling 1 ton of paper saves 17 trees (35 tall), 2 barrels of oil (enough fuel to run the average car for 1260 miles or from Dallas to Los Angeles), 4100 kilowatts of energy (enough power for the average home for 6 months), 3.2 cubic yards of land ll space (one family size pick-up truck) and 60 pounds of air pollution. Information from TAPPI.org & http://www.techsoup.org