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1. Pick Up
Different types - or grades -
of paper are recycled into different types of new products.
That’s why it’s important to pre-sort your recoverable
paper - for example, separating newspapers from magazines -
for the people who pick it up. |
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2. Sorting
At the recycling center, the paper is sorted to remove contaminants - palstice, paper clips, sticky notes and other waste materials that cannot be recycled.
Then the paper is baled and sent to the mill. Bales can weigh
around 1,000 pounds each! |
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3. Repulping
At the mill, the bales of sorted recovered
paper are soaked in large vats of water and chemicals, where
they separate into fibers. This creates pulp. |
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4. Screening
The pulp is then filtered through a number
of screens to remove impurities such as coatings, additives,
fillers and loose ink particles. |
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5. Deinking
Paper that had ink on it - such as newspapers
and magazines - must have the ink removed before it can be used
to make a new paper product.
The pulp enters a flotation device. Soapy chemicals are added
to help the ink separate from the pulp. Air bubbles are blown
into the mixture. The ink attaches to the bubbles and rises
to the top. The inky bubbles are then skimmed off, leaving the
pulp ink-free. |
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6. New Products
The cleaned and deinked recycled pulp often is mixed with new pulp to be made into paper products. |
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Even Chemicals and
Energy are Recycled
Today, United States pulp and paper mills recover about 98 percent of
all chemicals used to produce pulp from wood chips.
In addition, water is reused throughout the papermaking process.
Even the energy used to run a paper mill can be converted and
reused.
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