Paper recycling

Paper recycling recovers used paper and processes its fibers into furnish for new paper products. The fibers can be recycled only a limited number of times before they become too short or damaged for papermaking.

Pulping: Pulping separates paper into a suspension of fibers in water, usually by mechanical agitation. This is the first major processing step after recovered paper reaches a mill.
Cellulose: Cellulose is a structural polysaccharide made of glucose units and is the main component of plant cell walls. Paper's load-bearing fibers are primarily cellulose, which survives recycling as usable material.
Recycled paper: Recycled paper is paper made partly or wholly from recovered paper fibers. It is the direct product of the recovery and processing chain.
Waste hierarchy: The waste hierarchy ranks waste-management options, generally favoring prevention and reuse over recycling and disposal. It places paper recycling within a broader order of preferred material-management strategies.
Recycling contamination: Recycling contamination occurs when unsuitable materials are mixed into a recyclable collection stream. Contamination rates influence sorting costs and the quality of recovered paper bales.
Deinking: Deinking removes printing inks and other contaminants from recovered paper fibers. It prepares printed paper for products where ink would impair appearance or quality.
Paper: Paper is a thin sheet of fibers formed from a suspension and consolidated by pressing and drying. Paper recycling depends on separating and reusing the fibers that give paper its structure.
Recycled paperboard: Recycled paperboard is thick, multi-ply paper-based board made with recovered fibers. Packaging grades can use recovered fiber streams that are unsuitable for bright printing papers.
Life-cycle assessment: Life-cycle assessment evaluates environmental impacts across a product's stages, from resource extraction to disposal. It compares recycled and virgin paper without treating recycling as impact-free.
Recycling symbols: Recycling symbols are marks used to communicate information about a product's materials or recycling status. Labels can be mistaken for guarantees that every local system accepts a paper product.

Linked from 16 pages