Recycling paper is good for the environment and the economy. By recycling paper, we can save resources like:
It takes 6 times as much electricity to produce new paper from wood pulp than to produce it from recycled paper.
Interestingly, for every tonne of recycled paper we produce, we save:
- approximately 13 trees
- 2.5 barrels of oil
- 4,100 kilowats of electricity
- 4 cubic meters of landfill
- 31,780 litres of water.
What paper can I recycle?
In your kerbside recycling bin, you can recycle these types of paper:
- newspapers, magazines and junk mail
- office paper and envelopes (including the plastic window)
- milk and juice cartons
- cereal cartons and cardboard boxes.
Avoid placing these items in your recycling bin:
- tissues, hand towels and any paper that has been used for hygiene purposes
- excessively greasy food contaminated paper (for example, pie packets or pizza boxes with sauce or food stuck on them)
- waxed cardboard (fruit and mushroom cartons).
Paper can usually be recycled eight times. Discarded paper breaks down quickly, roughly within 3 weeks to 3 months.
Where does my recycled paper go?
Paper and cardboard that you place in your recycling bin is transported to our Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for sorting. At the MRF, a trommel separates paper from the other recyclable materials. This device is like a large tumble drier that rotates and sends the paper down onto a paper sorting line. Once sorted we bale the paper transport it to companies for reprocessing.
At the reprocessing plant, a machine called a Turboflex Pulp Maker mixes the paper bales with water at high speed. This breaks up the paper into separate fibres. These pass through cleaning and screening equipment to remove contaminants like staples, wire, plastic and string. Chemical treatments and heat loosen ink and glue so they can be washed out.
Finally, machines dilute the cleaned pulp with water and small amounts of paper-making additives. Machines press and dry the refined pulp and it becomes new paper and cardboard products.
As paper is re-processed the paper fibres break. As these fibres shorten, the resulting paper quality decreases.
Liquid paperboard cartons recycling
Paper in the form of liquid paperboard cartons is often of excellent quality. Machines pulp and process these types of cartons to produce high quality office paper.
Newspaper and office paper recycling
We can recycle newspaper and office paper into a range of paper products, including:
- new newsprint (up to 40 percent of newsprint is produced from recycled paper)
- cardboard cartons
- lower quality note pads
- office paper.
Cardboard recycling
Cardboard is often the lowest quality paper product produced. From cardboard we can only produce products of a similar or reduced quality paper, including:
- cardboard boxes
- egg cartons
- kitty litter.
Where does paper come from?
Wood pulp is the main raw material we use to make paper and cardboard products today. The pulp is often derived from wood chips, which are crushed and mixed with water to create a paste. Materials used include:
- short-fibred hardwoods like eucalypt trees
- long-fibred softwoods like pine trees)
- cotton fibres (for certain forms of high-quality paper).
Before it becomes paper, wood pulp is strained from the water, rolled smooth and dried. The paper forms as the fibres interlock and overlap, which ties them together. To produce:
- Writing and printing paper - machines also bleach the pulp white, shape and cut the paper into sheets.
- Cardboard – we use three layers of heavy paper. Two flat layers are bonded to either side of a fluted or corrugated layer of heavy paper.
- Liquid paperboard – we sandwich a layer of cardboard between layers of wax, plastic, or aluminium foil.
Despite modern technologies, most paper today is made using the same process we have used for centuries. Because this process uses a great deal of water and energy, we need alternative, more sustainable options for production. We need to recycle paper.