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Newspapers and Telephone Books
The average household produces 57.64 kilograms of newspaper per year. Newspaper consists of 15.98% of the total waste stream and locally 97.78% of all newspaper produced is recovered.
The average household also produces 21.84 kilograms of Magazines and Telephone Directories per year. Magazines and Telephone Directories consists of 6.05% of the total waste stream and locally 92.67% of all Magazines and Telephone Directories produced is recovered.
How to Prepare Material: Newspapers may be stuffed in large brown grocery sacks, or placed in a plastic bag for collection. Other materials, such as magazines and telephone books can also be packaged with newspapers for collection.
What happens after the Material Leaves your Blue Box? The newspaper (and inserts, magazines and telephone books) that are collected from your blue box is sorted into a compartment with other paper fibre materials on the collection truck and brought back to the Bluewater plant in Huron Park for sorting and processing.
Upon arriving at the plant, the recycling truck dumps the paper fibres onto the tipping floor. From there the material is moved along a series of conveyor belts that move the material to a sortation line, where material handlers are responsible for sorting the material into their respective groupings.
The fibre line is where we process all the paper products we receive. Typically, the loads of paper contain different "grades" of paper that need to be separated in order to be sold on the market. While the markets often dictate which grades will be separated, the Association separates the paper fibres into two main categories, newspaper mix and cardboard and boxboard mix. The newspaper mix consists of newspapers, magazines, telephone directories, and white office paper.
Some technology exists to assist sorters, and there is research being undertaken to develop robots to pick up different types of paper. The most efficient method yielding the best quality end product, however, is still people. Therefore, the mixed paper fibres that are collected are dumped on a sorting conveyor that carries the materials in front of four sorters, who remove the cardboard and boxboard mix materials and any other contaminants. The only non-paper product on that line is plastic bags which are removed and prepared for baling at the front end of the sortation line.
What Happens after the Material Leaves Bluewater? The use of paper in recycling depends upon the grade of the material. These grades are determined by fibre length; the longer the fibre, the higher the grade. A general ranking, from highest to lowest, is as follows: fine paper, newspaper, boxboard and kraft paper, cardboard and lastly paper towels and toilet paper. Most paper is recycled in much the same fashion.
Upon arrival at the plant, the material is churned in a PULPER with special soaps, then passed through a series of filters and screens to remove contamination. This mixture then enters flotation cells where air bubbles take inks, soaps and clay fillers to the surface. These are skimmed off and in some cases, the ink is collected and recycled. De-inked pulp is now mixed with new pulp from various sources. After passing through presses, dryers and rollers, sheets of recycled paper are produced.
The need for virgin paper would seem to defeat the purpose of recycling but this is not the case. Re-manufacturing paper causes the fibres to become shorter, thereby down grading the material. Adding new pulp helps keep the old paper strong enough to be useful. Some paper, like newspaper, can be made of 100% recycled product.
Typically, the different grades of paper are either made into a new version of the same product (e.g. fine paper to fine paper) or mixed to make other items. An example of the last point would be using telephone directories to make paper towels. Sometimes material is mixed with non-paper products to form new goods. Old newspaper is combined with fire retardant material to make insulation. Cereal boxes, fine paper, cardboard boxes, books and magazines are everyday goods made from recycled paper.
For more information, click here for another fact sheet. |
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