Recovered Paper and Recycled Fibers

After wood, the second largest share of pulp produced worldwide is pulp made

from recovered paper (see Tab. 1.2). Apart from good economic reasons, a major

force in this drive to recycling is derived from public pressure to reduce the

amount of used paper that is landfilled as waste. In the recycling process, recovered

paper is reduced to pulp principally by mechanical means, followed by separation

and removal of inks (de-inked paper, DIP), adhesives, and other contaminants,

through both chemical and mechanical processes. Recovered fibers generally

differ from virgin wood fibers in terms of their fiber morphology and physical

properties. Strength, as well as swelling and optical properties, tend to deteriorate

due to the recycling process. To a large extent, modern processing technology can

compensate for the inherent disadvantages of recovered fibers which, however,

contribute to higher costs. Modern mechanical refining is used, for example, to

resurrect surface fibrils, and modern papermaking machines and coatings can

enhance sheet strength and surface properties, while the efficiency of contaminant

removal has been improved by modern deinking systems.

The proportion of recovered fiber has grown substantially during the past few

years, and continues to expand. Its share of the global fiber flow increased from

22.5% in 1978 to 33.5% in 1992, and to 44% in 2000. The extent to which recovered

paper is used varies greatly from country to country. In Central Europe,

where there is a fiber deficiency, it accounts about half of the total fiber raw material

(utilization rate 47%, collection rate 57.3% in 2003 [35]), whereas in countries

1.5 Outlook

Europe