Recycling Paper for Nonpaper Uses
Recycling Paper for Nonpaper Uses Brent W. English, Industrial Specialist USDA Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory One Gifford Pinchot Drive Madison, WI 53705-2366 November 1993 Prepared for Presentation at American Institute of Chemical Engineers Annual Meeting, Forest Products Division, November 7-12, 1993. St. Louis, Missouri. Session 131: Advances in Wood Production and Preparation-Raw Materials Keywords: Wood fiber, composites, municipal solid waste, wastepaper, waste wood, waste plastic, biomass fibers, processing, properties, economics, inorganic binders The Forest Products Laboratory is maintained in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin. This article was written and prepared by U.S. Government employees on official time, and it is therefore in the public domain and not subject to copyright. ABSTRACT The largest components of the municipal solid waste stream are paper and paper products. Paper comes in many grades and from many sources. A significant portion of wastepaper is readily identifiable and can be easily sorted and collected for recycling into paper products. Old newspapers, office paper, and old corrugated containers are examples of these identifiable paper types. An even greater portion of wastepaper is not easily sorted and collected: this portion includes packaging, plastic coated paper, and mixed paper. In addition, many forms of wastepaper contain contaminants such as adhesives, inks, dyes, metal foils, plastics, or ordinary household wastes. These contaminants must be separated from the wastepaper before the fiber can be recycled into paper products. This is not the case when recycling into wood-based composites. In many uses, wood-based composites are opaque, colored, painted, or overlaid. Consequently, wastepaper for recycling into composites does not require extensive cleaning and refinement.
[Show full text]