Paper recycling
From Green Wiki
Paper isis left in a paper product, the paper turns yellow and Recycled paper fiber is usually mixed with recycled paper when new paper products are made. Most cardboard boxes are a mixture of 50 percent new and 50 lumber. However, a recycling mill may consume more fossil fuels than a paper mill. Paper mills generate much of their energy from waste wood, but recycling mills purchase most of their energy from local power companies or use on-site cogeneration facilities.
Making recycled paper does require fewer chemicals and bleaches than making all-new paper. Although recycled paper is less polluting than paper made from wood fiber, both processes produce different by-products. Paper mills may emit more sulfur dioxide, but recycling mills may produce more sludge. Deinking at Cross Pointe’s Miami, Ohio mill results in 22 pounds of sludge for every 100 pounds of wastepaper recycled.
Paper recycling does mean fewer trees are used to make paper, but all-new paper is almost always made from trees specifically grown for papermaking. A tree harvested for papermaking is soon replaced by another, so the cycle continues. “We are not talking about the rain forest or old growth in the Pacific Northwest,” says Champion Paper’s Martin Blick. “Most of the trees cut for paper come from fifth or sixth generation pulp-wood forests.”
[edit] Demand for Recycled Paper
Between 1990 and 1993, there was a glut of old newspapers on the East Coast. People in some communities diligently collected newspapers for recycling, only to have stacks of them grow and grow until they had to pay someone to haul them away—sometimes to a landfill.
In these situations, it may be better to burn the paper in a waste-to-energy plant than to recycle. The heat energy produced from burning the paper can be used to make steam and electricity.
During the last few years, the demand for recycled paper has caught up to the supply. More than 85 new paper mills with recycling capabilities have been built in the United States. Today, many paper companies are eager to get their hands on as much used paper as possible.
Most news print producers were using at least some recycled newsprint by 1995. Now they are worried that there may not be enough old newspapers to meet their demand.
America’s forest and paper companies have met their goal to recover 50 percent of all the paper used. They have set a new goal of 55 percent recovery by 2012.
