If you have a quick look around, you will find that there are many paper products that you use daily. From the sheets of paper that you write on, to the books you read, your newspapers, egg cartons, and much more, paper and paper-based products are a daily part of our lives. It is safe to say that paper is an essential part of our lives and a product we consume on a daily basis. The majority of our paper products come from trees, which must first be chopped down, and then sent through an industrial process called pulping. Pulping removes the lignin, which is the polymer that gives trees their strong, hard structure.
A large part of the world use sustainable crop such as tree forestry. Trees raised specifically for pulp production account for more than 16% of world pulp production. Although, the paper production process, in some environments, has led to mass deforestation which is a huge problem because it brings habitat destruction, and food chain disruption, indirectly increases the CO2 amount in our atmosphere, and causes soil erosion which can lead to flooding. A positive solution to this problem, which with the increase in our paper consumption becomes of greater and greater importance is to recycle these paper products.
Before we start to dwell on how paper is recycled, it is best to know what paper is. Paper is in essence layers of cross-linked cellulose fiber. Cellulose in itself is a polymer of glucose monomer unit. If you tear up a piece of paper, you will see fine hairs sticking out. These fine hairs are cellulose fibers. When paper products are recycled these cellulose fibers are merely pulled apart and rearranged into new paper products.
At the very beginning of this process (and while this is practiced more in the developed countries but has begun to be implemented all over the world), people are encouraged to recycle paper by being provided with separate containers just for their paper products. The paper waste is then collected and separated according to its properties. For example, sheets of paper are recycled with other sheets of paper, and cardboard boxes are recycled with other cardboard boxes.
Before the paper can be recycled it first has to be de-inked, which means that all the ink has to be removed. To give you a better illustration of the many challenges that go into recycling paper, we have to consider that most of the ink we use today is petroleum-based ink, which is very difficult to remove. To make the paper industry more environmentally friendly there are soy-based inks currently in development. They are both derived from renewable resources and are also easier to remove, thus having a direct impact on our paper recycling efforts. We also need to remove metal parts (like staples or paperclips) which is done with a magnet. Another thing that has to be removed is glues which are done so with a chemical wash.
The cellulose fiber that remains is then mixed with new pulp, allowed to settle, and then rolled to form the new sheets of paper. This step also removes any access water before it is air dried.
Despite being a very laborious process, paper recycling comes with many benefits (and a few minor drawbacks).
One of the biggest advantages of recycling paper comes from the fact that it takes 70% less energy than producing paper from wood or virgin fibers. It also requires a lot less raw materials (for each ton of paper recycled 17 trees are saved from getting cut). On top of this, it has a huge impact on saving resources, with some studies estimating that 69% of the materials needed for the paper-cardboard industry can be supplied from recycling.
It also required 80% less water than producing paper from virgin wood. Recycling paper also results in improved air and water quality, with a reduction of 74% in gas emissions and a 35% reduction in water-polluting emissions.
And lastly, every paper product we recycle is one less product in a landfill and more land we can use for beneficial purposes.
The main disadvantage of recycling paper is that it can only be done a few times. Recycled paper is usually used to make kitchen rolls, toilet paper, and packaging material. Each time the paper product is recycled the cellulose fiber becomes shorter, thus rendering the recycled paper product a bit less useful than the original.
As we can see while paper has to go through a long process to be recycled in the end it is worth it, it helps us, helps the environment, and allows us to make the most of a product that has helped us propel our civilization forward and made our lives so much better.
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