Volume 5, Number 1
Mar 1992

News

Other Things You Can do with Waste Paper

• Engineers from the Sullivan Machinery Co. near Sydney, Australia, have found a way to make biodegradable coffins from waste newspapers. They look very much like traditional wood ones, and sell for E500 each. [This news, appropriately enough, appeared in a packaging journal, Monitor (Packag.), no. 1, 1991.1
• The Wall Street Journal for September 27-28, 1991, reports a patented new process to make woodlike blocks out of waste paper and water. No adhesive is needed, though additives can be used, such as color, fire retardants and insect proofing. The blocks can be sliced or sanded. The process was developed at Gustavus Adophus College, St. Peter, MN.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory has investigated recovery of fibers from towns and industries and the alternative uses they might be put to: production of composite materials, composting with paper mill sludges to make potting soil, and energy generation (from waste wood and refuse), among other uses. (From "Alternative Uses of Recovered Fibers," by T.E. Hamilton et al, paper presented at "Focus '95+: Landmark Paper Recycling Symposium," March 1991, Atlanta. TAPPI Press, 1991, $80.)

Recent Developments in the Industry

• Seven wood-containing machines have been converted to alkaline and five more are in the process of converting, according to Jerry Pflieger of OMYA, a supplier of calcium carbonate. Peter Duncan, president of OMYA.says that about 60%-65% of Europe's wood-containing capacity has been converted. More information on this, and on the various advantages of alkaline papermaking, are in a paper by Charles E. Swann in the American Papermaker for February 1992: "More Mills Switch to Alkaline to Improve Quality and Cut Costs."
• It is now possible to make printing and writing papers that are made up of two or three layers of fibers. They are called "stratified," "multi-ply" or multilayer grades, and have been used for packaging, linerboard and tissue in the past. The idea is to put the best layers on the outside, so that a cheaper fiber (e.g., CTMP) can be used on the inside. All three layers can now be made at the same time with a special headbox.
  
  At the time this procedure was published in Tappi Journal, only one mill was known to be using this process for printing and writing papers ("Stratification of Paper Grades," by John H. Harwood, May 1990, p. 115-122). That mill was located in Norway.
• A reusable coated paper that can be erased with heat has been invented by a small German company, ETIP GmbH, which has its U.S. offices in Freeland, Washington. The paper is fed into a $75 machine and comes out clean, ready for reuse. There are some kinds of inks that cannot be erased, however. The paper will probably cost 404t a sheet, and each sheet can be reused about 50 times before it wears out, company officials claim. The first products based on this technology are expected out this year. (More information in the San Francisco Chronicle for August 17,1991.)
• Conditions under which ozone bleaching works best are discussed in the November Pulp & Paper, in an article by Howard Deal, "Environmental Pressure Causes Change in Bleaching Technologies, Chemicals." If the ozone is not properly controlled, it can destroy the cellulose, but at a pH between 1.0 and 4.0 (achieved by acetic acid), good control is possible. Temperatures between 80' and 140'F are used for a short time, less than 10 minutes.
• A two-part survey of the use of ozone in bleaching pulps is in the January and February issues of Tappi Journal.
• Ozone has been used in paper conservation to bleach documents, using a special piece of equipment that was marketed a few years ago in England, but its use is not generally condoned, because of its destructive potential.

Non-Wood Fibers

• An organization called Ecologically Sound Papers, based in the UK, is arranging to have a hemp-based paper produced. They chose hemp because it produces long fibers, is an annual plant grown throughout Europe, has a low lignin content (4%) and a low nutrient draw-up from the soil. The paper will be manufactured by William Sommerville & Son. (From Pap. Eur., v. 3, no. 7, Oct. 1991, p. 8)
• Barriers to use of kenaf fiber in papermaking were described by panelists at the 1991 TAPPI Pulping Conference in November. The report, on p. 260-261 in the February Tappi Journal, helps explain why kenaf is taking so long to be adopted as a fiber source for papermaking. For one thing, it is an annual crop, so it has to be stored for most of the year before use, and the problem is to prevent deterioration in storage. (It is bulky, so it has to be stored outside.) Farmers do not want to grow kenaf because it is not as profitable as other crops. The new investment in handling and processing facilities is too large to displace wood, and the costs of production can be even higher than for wood. Wheat straw was suggested as an alternative, because it is readily available as an agricultural by-product, and it makes good newsprint.
  On the other hand, according to one participant, time is on the side of kenaf because ways of growing and using it will become more efficient, while wood pulp will continue to grow more expensive.

Nonwood pulp stocks available on the market are listed in Lockwood-Post's Directory: cotton linter, bagasse, bamboo, esparto, flax, jute, rag, rope and straw. Some of them are imported from other countries. But no kenaf.