Why Is Paper Recycling Important Environmental Sciences Essay

The large amount of paper waste being generated in the past years has really being a great concern to the society, the disposal and treatment process involved in paper waste had being on the increase, Richard A. Venditti (1992) said “37% by weight of Municipal Solid waste are being generated are gotten from paper”, but as at Due to this large amount of the paper waste being produced by homes, industries and office, recycling of the paper waste technology has help in the reduction of the total amount of waste being put in the landfill and also help in the reduction of high dependence of raw materials for paper production from plants(vegetable fibers) which in turns help in the reduction of the way tress are being cut for paper production thereby preserving our environment and also reduces energy use and CO2 and Methane emission compaired to the normal production procress from plants

The recycling of paper waste which majorly gets it raw materials from: Mill broke ( paper scrap from paper production), Pre – consumer waste ( paper being discarded before usage by consumers) and post – consumer waste(paper being discarded after use), has helped in the reduction of deforestation. Due to the source of raw material for paper being produced by recycling there is high dependence of paper being produced from recycling paper, Paper online said that “90% newspaper are printed on recycle paper,90% corrugated boxes are made from recycle fiber and 54% of fibres which are being used in new paper and board are gotten from recycled paper”

Europe has being the leading recycling of paper in the world, studies has shown that “more than 60 tonnes of paper of paper are being collected per year and still on the increase which has exceed 60%of the paper consumed since 2005” (Paper online)

Paper Recycling is mainly the processing of waste paper into new paper product. Waste paper, which are majorly gotten for offices, homes and industries are being taken to the recycle bank by local authorises and then collected and processed into paper related product. Recycling of waste paper has affected the environment in a positive way by the reduction in the dependence of plant for raw materials for paper production which is vegetable fibers gotten from plants. Recycling of waste paper gets its raw materials from three catergories,  Mill broke (“paper trimmings and other paper scrap from the manufacture of paper, and is recycled internally in a paper mill”),  Pre-consumer waste(“is material which left the paper mill, which has been discarded before it was ready for consumer use”) and  Post-consumer waste (“waste is material discarded after consumer use, such as old magazines, old newspapers, office waste, old telephone directories, and residential mixed paper”) “Debunking the Myths of Recycled Paper”

Pre recycling

Technology involved in paper recycling

The technology involved in paper recycling involves majorly five step after collection of waste from the waste bank. The Seven steps which are, Pick up form home offices and business, Sorting to remove contaminants, Re-pulping which invovles blending of d sorting with water and chemicals, Filtering to remove scraps and impurites, De-Inking by use of soapy chemicals, Draining of the water, Drying by the use of heat and Rolling and Packing of the produced paper. I will be looking at each of this steps individually in my report.

Pick up

General waste from Homes, officesRecycling actually starts from our homes, offices and business, where we separate the type of waste to be disposed by putting them in specific disposal bags and bins ready for collection. The waste bin (the recyclable bin) which has the paper content inside are being collected by local collection agents and then transported to the recycle bank where it is being sorted out and read for recycling

Paper Recycling

Recycle Bank

Recyclable waste

Pick up

by local agent

Non-Recyclable waste

Sorting to remove contaminants

Sorting is majorly done by the use of recycling sorting line (RSL) in the recycle bank. The recycling sorting line sorts out the recyclable materials gotten from home into different recyclable materials(like paper, plastic, plastic, cans) and are then sold to different recyclers.

The recycling sorting line can be fully or partially automated or can involve manual sorting. In the automated system the RSL separates the recyclables in terms of their density, size, and chemical composition it uses specific properties of separation equipment (like , trommels, density sorters, and magnetic separators) to separate the recyclables into different categories. The combination of both manual sorting and the automated sorting give a very high efficiency sorting system.

Trommels : this separation equipment is being made up of different screen hole sizes at the outer part of the equipment. The screen size gets larger as the through the length of the screen allowing the recyclables be separated according to size.

Density sorters: this separation equipments used density of the recyclables for d separation process by the use of air knife which produces controlled air stream with a specific velocity so as to blow the lighter recyclables like plastic, cans or paper into a collection chamber depending on the air stream velocity.

Magnetic separators : This is majorly the use of eddy current as a means of separating of ferrous metals like  aluminium which are being lifted away from the recyclable mixtures.

Conveyer belt: this is mainly used during manual sorting, where the recyclables materials moves through the conveyer belt and it is being manually sorted through hand picking by workers.

(www.p2sustainabilitylibrary.mil/p2…/7_III_8)

After sorting they are then baled and being sold to the very recycler for the recycling of their various components. The baled waste paper are then taken to the paper mill for the recycling.

Re-pulping

The baled paper waste are then slide into different sizes and then transfer in a pulper for it to get mixed with water and chemical. Contained in the pulper is a mixture of water and dipolar aprotic protophylic solvent{1}. The water being used IN this mixture is being  optimized to get a tetrahedral lattice of natural hydrogen-oxygen-hydrogen angles through the rearrangement of its hydrogen bonding system. Due to the aptimization of the water components the water structure develops properties of “smaller cluster pattern, lower surface tension, increased dissolving powers, higher carrying efficiency, microbiological stability and greater reactivity”(1) which determines the characterises of the final pulp being produced. Mixing of this water optimized water with dipolar aprotic protophylic solvent would produce an “aqueous solution of dipolar aprotic protophylic solvent”.

The aqueous solution is then mixed in the paper waste in the pupler until a stereochemical alterations occurs with the waste paper which cause a full repulping of the paper waste. The aqueous solution is then drained away from the pulper after the completion of the process and the prodced pulp from the paper waste is removed out of the pulper afterways. The repulping of the paper waste forms a pulp(i.e the paper waste then forms a pulp).

A pulper is majorly a mixing tank which contain a pulp feeder(which is used to feed the waste paper, water and the chemical into d pulper), turbine impeller , a mixer (which is being driven by a motor to ensure proper mixing), sieve plates ( to ensure that no undiluted particule leaves the pupler) (http://www.lenzing.com/technik/en/fiberandpulptechnology/2085.jsp)

Filtering

After the pulp has being extracted from the pulper its then being filtered and cleaned so as to remove impurities (like waxy coatings, heavy inks, non wood-based fillers, glue,ink) present in the pulp. Screening is the major process involved here, which involoves the use of sieves of different sizes together with centrifugal cleaning system are being used. Sieved sizes screens are being arrangement in parallel at forming different layer of stages. The pulp is then being passed through the sieves which would filter of the unwanted imputires thereby producing the pure required pulp needed.

De-Inking

This is majorly the removal of printed ink from the paper fibers by the use of soapy chemicals which involves both mechanical and chemical process. The chemical and mechanical process are mostly called flotation and wash deinking.

Flotation process involves the transfer of the pulp into the froth flotation cell in which the sopy chemical is then added in the cell. The froth flotation cell mostly operate 45 – 550c. Air is then blowed through the pulp thereby causing the air to get attached to the ink present in the pulp and then its being left up away from the pulp and suspend at the top of the chemical .the flotation cell consist of two cylindrical flotation cell with both have an overflow forth launder and hexagonal in shape an inlet and discharge box attached to the cell. <Lawrence, George A. (Weston, CT)>