Recycling The Paper

Paper is one of the most important commodities that we use in our everyday life. All the books and copies that we study from are made up of the paper. As the trend of education in the world is increasing so is the consumption of the paper and the paper products. Thousands of trees are cut every year to meet the growing needs of the paper industry. If the world continued to cut the trees so unbearably for the production of the paper one day we will run short of our natural flora and forests. This means that there will be great destruction in the ecosphere and the world will become an increasingly hot place to live in. An effective alternative to this is that we can recycle the already used material to make the new paper. Paper recycling can produce very good paper at a very low cost.

Papers can be recycled very easily for at least five to seven times and then the fibers become so short and brittle that further recycling is not possible. Also the paper recycling process is very eco-friendly as compared to the plastic recycling because it does not produce any hazardous gases. In this manner the recycling is contributing towards the development of the healthy environment. Paper forms about the twelve percent of all the solid waste of the world. People throw them in their house hold waste which is then carried to the municipal workers to the waste basket. Many hawkers separate the papers from the waste material and sell them to the factories. Once all the paper from the waste reaches the factory it is segregated according to the quality and type. The four major categories are white paper, newsprint, cardboard boxes and mixed variety. White paper is the finest of all the papers that are used for computer printing and notebooks. Once recycled the paper is although re –utilized, the quality is of low grade as compared to its original quality. During assortment the paper that is contaminated with food, metals or other kind of trash is separated because such materials are not recyclable.

The paper is then soaked in large quantity of water to produce the pulp. The water used for recycling is less than that needed to produce the virgin paper. It is estimated that for the production of one ton of paper we need 7000 gallons of water. Also the electricity consumption is much less than the production of the new paper variety. The pulp that is produced by soaking the paper is filtered to remove the contaminants. A bleaching material is then added to remove any color or ink mark. The recycled pulp is then added to the virgin paper pulp and placed in mould to dry up. Once the new paper is produced it is cut according to the new size and sent to the press for marking lines. Some of the paper may not be converted into the paper products. It will be used for making paint fillers, fruit trays and egg cartons etc.