Recycling
Paper
FAQ's
Frequently
Asked Questions about Recycling Paper
Paper Manufacturing
How is wood made
into paper?
In the papermaking process, wood is first chipped into small pieces.
Then water and heat, and sometimes chemicals, are added to separate
the wood into individual fibers. The fiber is mixed with lots of
water (and often recycled fiber), and then this pulp slurry is sprayed
onto a huge flat wire screen which is moving very quickly through
the paper machine. Water drains out, and the fibers bond together.
The web of paper is pressed between rolls which squeeze out more
water and press it to make a smooth surface. Heated rollers then
dry the paper, and the paper is slit into smaller rolls, and sometimes
into sheets, and removed from the paper machine.
Does most of the paper manufactured in the U.S. come from whole
trees?
No. Over half of the
raw material used to make paper in the U.S. comes from recovered
paper and the wood waste (such as wood chips and sawdust) left behind
from lumber manufacturing.
What is paperboard?
Paperboard is the stiff
type of paper often referred to as "cardboard." Paperboard
is used in food packaging (such as cereal boxes), and is used to
make many other types of products such as shoe boxes, video game
boxes, book covers, etc.
Paper Recycling
How do paper recyclers
take the ink out of paper?
During the paper recycling
process, ink is removed from paper in a process called deinking
(de-inking). After the recovered paper is chopped up (or pulped),
and mixed with water to make a pulp slurry, it is put through a
series of washing and/or flotation deinking processes in which water
and/or soap-like chemicals called surfactants remove the ink from
the paper.
What happens to the ink that's removed?
Along with clay, short
fibers, and other materials removed during the deinking process,
ink that is removed from recycled pulp can be burned to generate
energy to run the mill, or sold to make such useful materials as
compost or gravel for roads.
How many times can a piece of paper be recycled?
A single piece of paper
may contain new fibers as well as fibers which have already been
recycled once, twice, or several times. Papermaking fibers can typically
be recycled 5-7 times before they become too short to be recycled
again.
Why does paper need to be sorted before it's recycled?
Successful recycling
requires clean recovered paper which is free of contaminants such
as food, plastic, metal, and other trash. Contaminated paper can
introduce impurities and bacteria into the recycling process. Furthermore,
different grades of paper - corrugated boxes, newspapers, and office
paper - must be kept separate, because the different grades of recovered
paper are used to make particular types of recycled paper products.
Will recycling paper help save the tropical rain forests?
The trees that grow in
the tropical rain forests are rarely harvested to make paper. The
deforestation occurring in the tropical rain forests is mainly due
to population pressure. In the world's under-developed nations,
more than 90 percent of the deforestation occurs because of the
demand for increased agricultural land and/or firewood.
Trees and Forests
Why do leaves change
color in the fall?
Leaves contain pigments of various colors all through the year,
but most of the year the yellows and oranges are masked by great
amounts of green coloring from the abundance of chlorophyll contained
in the leaves. In the fall, when the temperatures change and the
length of daylight decreases, leaves stop their food-making process,
and their chlorophyll, now unused, begins to break down. The green
color disappears, and the yellows and oranges already present in
the leaves become visible. At the same time, other chemical changes
occur within the leaves which cause red pigments to develop.
Are we running out of trees in the U.S.?
No; in fact, there are
more trees in the U.S. today than there were 70 years ago.
What is the difference between a national forest and a national
park?
There is a big difference
between the two. By law, national forests are working forests, set
up by the U.S. Congress in the late 1800s to provide the nation
with a continuous source of raw materials for wood products. At
the same time, they are also used to provide wildlife habitat and
for recreation. By contrast, national parks, like Yellowstone, Glacier,
Rocky Mountain, and Yosemite, are intentionally set aside for non-commercial
uses (such as recreation) and are not managed for resource production.
How many trees are planted each year in the U.S.?
Over 2 ½ billion
trees are planted in the U.S. each year. The forest community plants
over 1 ½ billion of these trees; that's an average of 4 million
new trees planted every day by the forest community. Millions more
trees regrow from seeds and sprout naturally.
Are we cutting down more trees in the U.S. than we're planting?
No. In fact, forest growth
has exceeded harvests since the 1940s.
What makes a forest "old growth"?
Old growth is generally
defined as trees 200 years of age or older. There are 13.2 million
acres of old growth in the U.S. today. The vast majority of these
trees will remain in their natural condition and will never be harvested
due to legal and regulatory prohibitions on logging, road building,
and even fire fighting.
What percentage of the world's wood is used each year to make
paper?
Only about 17% of the
3.3 billion cubic meters of wood consumed worldwide each year is
for papermaking, and much of this wood is in the form of wood chips
and other residue left behind from sawmill operations. Over half
of the wood harvested in the world is used for fuel, mostly for
cooking and domestic heating.
Does cutting down trees for papermaking lead to deforestation?
No. Deforestation is
the permanent clearing of trees for purposes such as creating farmland
and pasture land, for commercial and residential development, or
for any other use for which trees are cut and not allowed to grow
back. Paper companies and others in the forest products industry
are actively reforesting. They not only allow trees to grow back,
they actually encourage new growth by replanting and caring for
new trees, and by creating forest land in areas where it previously
did not exist. Unfortunately, deforestation is occurring in many
parts of the world, especially in the tropics. This deforestation
is mainly due to population pressure. In most of these cases, forests
are cut down and burned for domestic fuel (heating homes and cooking)
or to clear land for farming.
How much of a harvested tree is actually used? Is any part wasted?
The forest products industry
has found uses for almost every part of a tree, so virtually all
of the tree is used. For instance, lumber and building products
can be made from the trunk, primarily from large trees whose diameters
are greater than 8". The remaining wood is recovered in the
form of trimmings and wood chips, and is used to make paper. The
natural chemicals within the wood chips are recovered and made into
useful products such as turpentine, plastics, food flavorings, and
photographic film. The bark of the tree is ground or chipped to
make garden mulch, or it can be burned in a furnace to generate
energy to run a paper mill. Leaves, needles, and small branches
are generally left in the forest to replenish the soil by adding
valuable organic matter. This also helps to hold water and prevent
excessive run-off on the forest floor.
Paper Industry
Statistics
How much paper do
Americans use in a year?
Every year, Americans
use more than 90 million short tons of paper and paperboard. That's
an average of 700 pounds of paper products per person each year.
Every year in America, more than 2 billion books, 350 million magazines,
and 24 billion newspapers are published.
How many paper mills are there in the United States? In the world?
The U.S. is the world's leading producer of paper and paperboard,
with over 500 mills in operation. Worldwide, there are approximately
10,000 paper and paperboard mills in operation.
How much paper and paperboard is made in the U.S.? Worldwide?
Worldwide, about 300 million metric tons of paper and paperboard
are produced each year. The U.S. alone produces about 87 million
metric tons of paper and paperboard, representing nearly one-third
of the world's total production.
Paper History
When was paper invented?
According to tradition, paper was invented in 105 A.D. by a Chinese
court official named Ts'ai Lun. But recent evidence suggests that
the Chinese may have been making paper from old fishing nets and
other materials as early as 200 B.C.
When was paper first made in the U.S.?
The first paper mill
in the U.S. colonies was established in 1690 by William Rittenhouse,
a papermaker, William Bradford, a printer, and two wealthy Philadelphia
businessmen. The Rittenhouse Mill was built near Germantown, Pennsylvania.
Although the mill itself no longer exists, you can still visit the
historic site on which the mill was located.
General Mill Supply can
answer these questions and many more! about paper recycling
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