RECYCLING is a word that we hear everyday – in discussions, on television, on billboards, and in magazines. Chances are, you pass dozens of recycling bins as you go about your daily routine.
So, what’s the big deal?
Why is recycling so important?
How does it happen?
Can tossing your old paper in a recycling bin instead of the garbage really make a difference?
The answer is yes. Paper recovered for recycling accounted for 37 percent of all fiber used by the U.S. paper industry in 2003. More than 80 percent of all paper mills in the U.S. use recovered paper to make their new products. Recycling paper also helps our communities by keeping it out of landfills and incinerators. The paper that we recover for recycling helps us improve the environment and produce new paper products that we use in our every day life.
While many of us have an idea of what recycling is and why it is important, few of us actually understand the recycling process.
What happens to paper after we place it in the recycling bin, or drop it off at a community collection center?
Contrary to what some people may think, paper recycling is not a new idea. In fact, the process of making paper out of recovered materials is quite old. Prior to the 1880s, paper was made from a wide variety of recovered materials, including rags and linen.
Today, many different grades of paper can be recycled into different products. Used newspapers are usually made into new newsprint, egg cartons, or paperboard. Used corrugated boxes are recycled into new boxes or paperboard. High-grade white office paper can be recycled into almost any new paper product, including tissue.
The recycling process can begin at any number of locations, including community curbside programs, drop-off centers, schools or offices. Regardless of where the recycling process is started, it is important to understand what can be recycled in your community and what steps you need to take to recycle.
According to the 2000 AF&PA Community Survey, 237 million people (86 percent of the U.S.) have access to some form of community paper/paperboard recycling, either through curbside collection or drop-off programs. Currently, more than 50 percent of the paper consumed in the U.S. is recovered for recycling. This is important because for every ton of paper recycled, it saves more than 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space. In fact if measured by weight, more paper is recovered for recycling from municipal solid waste streams than all glass, plastic, and aluminum combined.
After it is collected, recovered paper is transferred to a recycling center or Material Recovery Facility (MRF), where contaminants such as glass, plastics, paperclips and staples are removed. Once the recovered paper is free of contaminants, it is baled and transported to a paper mill where the recycling process begins.
In broad terms, recovered paper uses paper diverted from the solid waste stream to create new paper products. The process of papermaking is essentially the same whether or not recovered fiber is used..
To begin the papermaking process using recovered fiber, the fiber is shredded and mixed with water to make a pulp. The pulp is washed, refined, and cleaned, then turned to slush in a beater. Color dyes, coatings, and other additives are mixed in, and the pulp slush is pumped onto a large moving screen. Computers and special sensors monitor each step of the papermaking process.
As the pulp travels down the screen, water is drained away and recycled. The resulting paper sheet, also known as web, is pressed between massive rollers to extract most of the remaining water and to ensure smoothness and uniform thickness. The semidry web is then run through heated dryer rollers to remove any remaining water.
Chemicals are filtered out and often burned in an on-site cogeneration plant that helps to meet the energy needs of the facility, and, in some cases, of the local community.
The finished paper is then wound into large rolls, which can be 30 feet wide and weigh close to 25 tons. A slitter cuts the paper into smaller, more manageable rolls, and the paper is ready for use in your school, workplace, and community.
Paper that is recycled begins life again as part of the products that we use in our every day life.
Recycling is good for the environment, good for business, and good for the community.
Recycling – it starts with you.
