Waste paper has to do with recycling, this is quite obvious, but few know what it really is, how it is classified and eventually how it is certified and controlled.
There are important rules and criteria to know if you want to be ready to seize every recycling opportunity that exists today.
Waste paper: what is it?
What we call waste paper is not real paper but is the set of fibers that have been recovered from paper or cardboard that has already been used. It is precisely from this raw material that we can obtain the fibers that are then used to create recycled paper. Most of the paper used and produced in Italy comes from waste paper.
Waste paper: types
Let’s dig deeper and try to understand what characteristics this paper has, observing the two existing types, the industrial one and the domestic one.
The first includes all the varieties of paper and cardboard that we can find in the different industrial processes, therefore all those wastes coming from the paper or publishing industries, from offices and from the various commercial and transport activities, including packaging. It is abundant, as you can imagine, it constitutes the largest share of waste paper that we find on the market and it is decidedly cheap because it can be found at very low prices. There are companies specialized in the collection of industrial paper.
Household paper, as the name suggests, comes from all the paper that individual families throw away in the garbage. To collect it , you separate it, it is yet another material to be careful about at home in addition to glass, plastic and even organic waste. This type of waste paper requires more expensive treatment.
Waste paper: how to use it
Now that we know the importance of waste paper in the paper recycling cycle , let’s get to know the steps better. When producing recycled paper, there are no very different steps compared to those for the production of “ex novo” paper, what changes is obviously the initial part because you have waste paper in your hands.
If for normal paper a cellulose paste must be prepared, for waste paper a cleaning operation is necessary, that is, the elimination of all the fibers and residues of other materials such as ink, plastic, glue. It is essential to do this before using this paper to produce other paper. After this purification, the waste paper is taken and treated in such a way as to reduce it to pulp and then it is filtered, in such a way as to clean it from the printed ink. This “washing” produces dirty water and real sludge that we can reuse for example by the construction industry.
There are different ways to proceed , for example in some cases we can find 100% waste paper but in other cases there can also be a bit of virgin fiber . However, to be able to talk about recycled paper, it must remain under the 40% threshold. To make recycled paper more accepted by the market of those who turn up their noses at its shade, a bleaching process is implemented which unfortunately is often carried out with the use of chlorine, which is decidedly polluting. There are also alternatives that we can consider such as oxygen, an effective bleaching agent but with much less impact on the environment.
On average, to whiten recycled paper, 7 to 15 kg of oxygen-based chemical compounds are used for each ton of product. In terms of processing, we must imagine waste paper as a sort of mixture obtained from its processing and careful shredding and which is fed to a special machine, called “continuous”, which is used to “stretch” the mixture, dehydrate it and press it through a passage from the rollers, until the final winding in reels.
Waste paper: advantages
The use of this paper to produce recycled paper brings with it interesting advantages that are worth remembering and that are both environmental and social, provided that these two aspects are disconnected even if we all know that this is not the case.
By using waste paper, the amount of waste to be disposed of is reduced and the life of a product is extended. To this must be added a decrease in deforestation , because by using already used fibers, it is not necessary to cut down as many trees as before. Let’s not forget the benefits in terms of new jobs and also new businesses that can be developed in various sectors from collection, to recycling and processing of raw materials.
Waste paper: limits
This excellent opportunity unfortunately is not infinite and after a while of using it you have to stop. On average it happens after about 5-6 times. It is a big limit that is not found with other recyclable materials such as glass. This is because the fibers of waste paper can get ruined and deteriorate and therefore become unusable after a few steps. After it has been used to the maximum, even waste paper becomes a real solid urban waste and must be disposed of.
