Paper Recycling

Paper and card make up 40% of materials collected from households for recycling.

On average, each person in the UK uses over 200kg (the weight of 200 bags of sugar) of paper per year. We use 12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard every year in the UK - if all this paper was made from raw materials nearly 50 million trees would be required!

Recycling used papers and magazines into new paper:

• Used newspapers and magazines are collected from a paper bank or from your kerbside collection.
• Where a number of recyclables are collected together by local councils, they arrive at sorting centres. Newspaper, magazines, cardboard and other papers are separated from plastic, aluminium and steel cans and other materials. Things that are unsuitable for recycling (contaminates) are also rejected at this stage.
• The newspaper and magazines are then taken recycled newsprint mills, which make the type of paper on which newspapers are printed. Over 400,000 tonnes of newsprint can be made at one facility in a year!
• Firstly, the paper fibres are pulped before being washed and screened to remove unwanted smaller contaminants such as staples, glues and plastics.
• The newly recovered pulp is pumped between two meshes (like giant sieves), the water is extracted and the paper dried. More than a mile of paper may be made in a minute!!
• This paper is then rolled and stored. Each machine roll weighs around 45 tonnes - that's almost the same as 20 family cars.
• The 100% recycled paper can then be delivered to publishers’ press rooms and made into newspapers.

Uses for recycled paper:

• Recycled paper can be made into all sorts of new products including:
  Newspapers, magazines, printing paper, cardboard, toilet rolls, toilet paper, loft insulation, paints and even road surfaces

What you can do:

• Recycling paper is one of the most important materials to recycle as in landfill it is one of the contributors of methane gas production (green house gas).
• Ask your local council if you can also recycle catalogues yellow pages and directories in your kerbside collection.

For information about your nearest paper bank or any kerbside scheme operating in your part of the county please follow the links.