Paper recycling
It has several important benefits: It saves waste paper from occupying the homes of people and producing methane as it breaks down.
Pre-consumer waste is a material which left the paper mill but was discarded before it was ready for consumer use.
Post-consumer waste is discarded after consumer use, such as old corrugated containers (OCC), magazines, and newspapers.
It is then chopped up and heated, which breaks it down further into strands of cellulose, a type of organic plant material; this resulting mixture is called pulp, or slurry.
Books were bought at auctions to recycle fibre content into new paper, at least in the United Kingdom, by the beginning of the 19th century.
[6] Industrialized papermaking affects the environment both upstream (where raw materials are acquired and processed) and downstream (waste-disposal impacts).
[8] Most pulp mill operators practice reforestation to ensure a continuing supply of trees.
[14] Some calculations show that recycling one ton of newspaper saves about 4,000 kWh (14 GJ) of electricity, although this may be too high (see comments below on unrecycled pulp).
This is enough electricity to power a 3-bedroom European house for an entire year or enough energy to heat and air-condition the average North American home for almost six months.
[15] Recycling paper to make pulp consumes more fossil fuels than making new pulp via the kraft process; these mills generate most of their energy from burning waste wood (bark, roots, sawmill waste) and byproduct lignin (black liquor).
In 1690, nearly a century before the American Revolution, the first paper mill to use recycled linen rags was established by the Rittenhouse family.
[32] As of 2018, paper products are still the largest component of MSW generated in the United States, making up 23% by weight.
[32] The widespread adoption of the internet and email has led to a change in the composition of the waste paper stream, with junk mail becoming a larger part of the materials collected, as reading of newspapers and writing of personal letters declines.
[39] Groups of chemicals as phthalates, phenols, mineral oils, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and toxic metals have all been identified in paper material.
