13th January 2023
Do you shy away from using recycled paper thinking it will be coarse and of a lower quality than regular white paper?
This is a common misconception of associating recycled paper with a standard brown, thick, grainy type of material. The reality is that the quality of recycled paper is largely dependent on the grade or quality of the raw material used to manufacture it.
India produces large quantities of paper waste that then becomes raw material for the paper recycling mills. Nearly 50% of the dry waste in urban areas of the country is made up of paper. Moreover, India also imports large quantities of high-quality, fibre-rich paper waste from other countries in order to meet its domestic demand.
Given the importance attached to the quality of paper waste in the final recycled paper product that is manufactured, it is imperative that we look into the different grades of paper waste and how they find different uses.
1. Brown Grade or Old Corrugated Containers/ Cardboards (OCC)
This category of waste paper is the most commonly recycled and includes brown single fluted boxes, delivery boxes, brown paper bags and feed sacks. Obtained from supermarkets, retail chains and grocery stores, as well as in the form of cuttings and waste from corrugating plants, they are usually recycled into shipping boxes, paper bags, recycled paper-boards for product packaging, etc.
2. White Grade
This is a broad category that includes a range of post and pre-consumer grades.
- Sorted White Ledger and Office Waste :
This consists of post-consumer high-quality white office paper that does not contain any contamination. Some examples include pastel coloured paper, junk mail, envelopes, file folders and daily office paper waste, excluding magazines.
- File Stock :
This is sorted office waste with a contamination greater than 2% but less than 10% of the total bale weight. Some examples include groundwood, chipboard or photographs.
- High-grade Deinked Paper :
This includes letterheads, copier paper, stationery, business documents, printer and converter scrap which are first de-inked to remove any possibility of colour inconsistencies. They are then recycled into products like printing and white papers or tissue of high quality.
- Pulp Substitutes :
Another high grade paper waste, this is the shavings and clippings that are discarded at paper mills, printing presses, and print shops. This is usually used in place of virgin raw paper pulp to manufacture high quality paper products.
3. Mechanical Grade consisting of Old Newspapers and Magazines
This category includes the short-fibre paper waste printed on groundwood such as old newspapers, magazines and catalogues that can be collected from households, office buildings and printing presses. These are then recycled to make new content newspapers, recycled paperboard and tissue and art paper. However, in order to process them, they might be sent to special paper mills for recycling.
4. Mixed Paper Grade
This is a large quantity, low-priced paper waste that consists of items such as discarded mail, telephone books, and paperboard. The items are not limited by the type of fibre or its content and the quality of the paper waste can vary depending on the collection area. These are normally recycled to make paper-products such as paperboard and tissue or to manufacture non-paper products like gypsum wallboard, chipboard, cellulose insulation and egg cartons.
5. Other Grades
There are several small and low quality grades of paper waste which include items such as paper plates, poly-coated kraft, carton scrap, plastic window envelopes, among others. Shredded paper is also included in this category provided it is of an appropriate size and fibre-length and does not contain large amounts of contaminants. This grade of waste paper is generally recycled into specialty or regular paper of a lower quality.
Now that you understand the varying levels of recycled paper quality depending on the paper waste used to manufacture it, you should make the switch to Rescript’s quality recycled paper. Help save the world at no extra cost - Shop Now!
