Paper Products

Do you know that paper was first invented in 105 AD by the Chinese? Even though they tried to keep it a secret and it took many centuries for people to figure out how to make it in large quantities, today it surrounds us.

Last year, Americans alone used over 100 million tons of paper products. Luckily, we are getting better at recycling it and we kept a record 45% out of landfills. In fact, every day, U.S. papermakers recycle enough paper to fill a 15 mile long train of boxcars.

Besides paper for writing, newspapers, greeting cards, gifts, airline tickets, grocery bags and toilet paper, we use paper to make all kinds of things that you might not even think about. Approximately 1.5 million tons of construction products are made each year of paper, including insulation, gypsum wallboard, roofing paper, flooring, padding and sound-absorbing materials.

To make paper, manufacturers first have to create pulp from trees. Wood pulp is made either chemically or mechanically by removing the fibrous materials from wood chips or from nonwood sources such as hemp, straw, bamboo, flax, and cotton. Pulp can also be recovered from recycled office paper, old newspapers, old magazines, and packaging materials.

When pulp is made chemically, it is "cooked" using chemicals to separate fibers in the wood from the lignin that glues them together. These chemicals are added to a big vat called a digester where they are cooked under steam heat and pressure.

When pulp is made mechanically, one of the most common processes is thermomechanical pulp or TMP which uses a combination of heated wood chips and mechanical processes. Stone Groundwood or SGW grinds the wood chips.

To learn more about forest and paper products, check out the following links:

• American Forest and Paper Association- http://www.afandpa.org/
• The Paper Industry Hall of Fame- http://www.paperhall.org/
• Tappi's Paper University- http://www.tappi.org/paperu/all_about_paper/paperHistory.htm