Top Paper Recycling Technology

Paper is an example of a valuable material that can be recycled. Its wood fibers are reused five to seven times before they become too short and brittle. Possible products are paper and cardboard, egg cartons, fruit trays, ceiling and wall insulation and many others. Newer research proves that paper was already produced 200 years earlier. Beside the already mentioned non-wood papermaking fibers, hemp, rags and fishing nets were used as source of material for the first recycled paper. Paper has its name from the papyrus plant. In Ancient Egypt about 4,000 years ago, its leaves were pounded flat and used to write on.

The secret of paper production was protected for many years. The Japanese got to know it only in the year 610 A.D. The art of making paper spread slowly all over the world; it came to the Arab world by the eighth century and via the Middle East to Spain. In Europe, the first paper was produced in the 12th century.

The chemical process of breaking down wood was invented in 1829 and the German Friedrich Keller found a method of grinding wood efficiently in 1843. This was the starting point of the success story of making paper from wood pulp and paper recycling.

The process of converting waste paper into a usable product Waste paper is pre-sorted and collected by the consumer. He takes it to a local recycling center or recycling bin.

In a repulsing process, the waste paper is chopped and broken down into fibers and mixed with water creating the pulp. This pulp must be cleaned from contaminants in a drinking process, which can combine washing, separating, sieving and rotating the fibers. The excess materials, mainly old ink and weak fibers, are skimmed off or dropped through centrifugal force into the sludge. It is then land filled, burned or used.

Now the fiber is ready to be made into a new paper product. The clean pulp is either mixed with virgin fibers or used alone. In short the recycling technology is generous technology of this century and it is beneficial for all mankind.