startyourownpaperrecyclingbusiness.com

The first piece of paper as we know it was produced from rags in AD 105 by Ts'ai Luin, who was part of the Eastern Han Court of the Chinese Emperor Ho Ti.

Paper is made from cellulose fibre, the source of which can be pulped wood, or a variety of other materials such as rags, cotton, grasses, sugar cane, straw, waste paper, or even elephant dung! In this country, wood pulp is the most common source material for the manufacture of virgin paper, i.e. paper which has no recycled content.

In 2004 recycled paper and board provided about 74% of the source materials for the 6.2million tonnes of paper manufactured in the UK's 76 paper and board mills. A further 7.7 million tonnes were imported. There are different sources of waste fibre used as a source material for manufacturing recycled paper. Mill Broke is "waste" paper which has never been used, either printers' off cuts or rolls damaged during production. When mixed with water the fibres are freed into pulp. The National Association of Paper Manufacturers does not recognise a paper as recycled if it contains more than 25% mill broke and/or virgin wood pulp.

The recycling of paper which has been printed on and used is known as "post-consumer waste". It is more problematic, (see de-inking below), but it is still worthwhile. Paper cannot be recycled indefinitely, it can only be recycled 4-6 times, as the fibres get shorter and weaker each time. Some virgin pulp must be introduced into the process to maintain the strength and quality of the fibre, so no matter how much we recycle we will never eradicate the need for virgin fibre.

Why bother?

In 2003/04, paper and card accounted for almost a third of all household waste collected for recycling, with almost 1.3 million tonnes being collected in England. This means, however, that there is still a considerable amount that isn't recycled and is largely going to landfill or incineration. Although the raw material for making paper is predominantly trees, it is a common misconception that recycling waste paper saves trees. Trees are grown for commercial use and harvested as a long term crop with new trees planted to replace those cut down. In addition, papermakers are able to use the parts of the trees that cannot be used in other industries such as construction and furniture making. Different species of trees provide fibres that are used in different types of paper. Coniferous softwoods such as spruce, pine birch and cedar produce fibres which are long (average fibre length is 3mm) and are used to make papers which have a lot of strength. Hardwoods such as birch and aspen do not grow as fast as softwoods and produce short fibres (average fibre length 1mm) which are used for bulky papers such as writing paper and fluting, which is the middle part of cardboard. Nearly all paper is made from wood grown in these "sustainable" forests. The more important environmental issues are:

The nature of forests and where they are situated. As the demand for paper has increased, more timber has been needed to meet the demand for wood pulp. In some cases this has meant the loss of valuable wildlife habitats and ecosystems, as old forests have been replaced by managed plantations, usually of fast-growing conifers. The lack of tree species diversity in managed forests has a direct impact on the biodiversity of the whole forest.

Paper is a biodegradable material. This means that when it goes to landfill, as it rots, it produces methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas (20 times more potent than carbon dioxide). It is becoming increasingly accepted that global warming is a reality, and that methane and carbon dioxide emissions have to be reduced to lessen its effects. Please see our energy information sheet for more information on this.

Recycled paper produces fewer polluting emissions to air (95% of air pollution) and water. Recycled paper is not usually re-bleached and where it is, oxygen rather than chlorine is usually used. This reduces the amount of dioxins which are released into the environment as a by-product of the chlorine bleaching processes.

By using waste paper to produce new paper disposal problems are reduced.

Producing recycled paper involves between 28 - 70% less energy consumption than virgin paper and uses less water. This is because most of the energy used in papermaking is the pulping needed to turn wood into paper.