Volume 3, Number 4
Oct 1990

Recycling Update

• Contaminants-in waste paper are a big problem for paper mills that use recyclable material. The worst contaminants are- pressure-sensitive adhesives (like those used on the back of the mailing label for newspapers) and hot melt adhesives.
• Companies that recycle newspapers can't let them sit around too long, or they will degrade to the point of unusability. Six months is the limit; if subjected to light or heat, the limit is less than a month.
• In Japan, which recycles half of all its wastepaper, the Japan Paper Association has announced a plan to increase wastepaper utilization 1% each year until it reaches 55%.
• Deinking chemicals listed and described on p. 157 of the September Pulp & Paper are sodium hydroxide (caustic), sodium silicate, hydrogen peroxide, a chelate/sequestrant to stabilize the hydrogen peroxide in the presence of metal ions, and surfactant. The phosphoric derivative of DTPA, DTPMPA, works better than DTPA in several respects.
• Prime Fiber Corporation received a $225,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, effective October 1, for three years, to pursue a project entitled "Conversion of Paper Mill Sludge into Pulp Substitute and Papermaking Clay"
• A letter to the editor, and an author's reply to the letter, in the September/October Garbage, made the point that high-grade deinking plants should not be seen as sources of dioxin because they usually use hydrogen peroxide or sodium hypochlorite. Although sodium hypochlorite contains chlorine, it is used in a high-alkaline environment, which prevents the chlorine molecules from breaking out of the molecule to recombine into dioxins and furans. It is still undesirable from one standpoint: it can create chloroform.
• Uniform labelling standards for recycled paper, based on uniform definitions, are sought by the Coalition of Northeastern Governors and the Northeast Recycling Council, according to a news item an p. 18 of the American Papermaker for August. (ASTM Committee D06.40 is working toward a similar goal.) Currently under consideration are proposals that would allow a product or package to be labelled "recyclable!' if it is recycled at a 20%. rate this year, 35% by 1995 and 50%. by 2000. To be called "recycled," most products would have to contain 50%. secondary material, including 15%. to 40% consumer waste.
• Canadian Pacific Forest Products Ltd., a Canadian company that sells newsprint on the American market, is now buying old newspapers from New York towns for $25/ton in order to be able to meet the demand for recycled newsprint. It is installing deinking facilities at two mills.