Dear all,

I  arranged for a workshop with my students about paper recycling  and we discussed the following information:

The paper recycling process includes the following steps:
1. Pulping: Adding water and applying mechanical action to separate fibers from each other.
2. Screening: Using screens, with either slots or holes, to remove contaminants that are larger than pulp fibers.
3. Centrifugal cleaning: Spinning the pulp slurry in a cleaner causes materials that are more dense than pulp fibers to move outward and be rejected.
4. Flotation: Passing air bubbles through the pulp slurry, with a surfactant present, causes ink particles to collect with the foam on the surface. By removing contaminated foam, pulp is made brighter. This step is sometimes called deinking.
5. Kneading or dispersion: Mechanical action is applied to fragment contaminant particles.
6. Washing: Small particles are removed by passing water through the pulp.
7. Bleaching: If white paper is desired, bleaching uses peroxides or hydrosulfites to remove colour from the pulp.
8. Papermaking: The clean (and/or bleached) fiber is made into a "new" paper product in the same way that virgin paper is made.
9. Dissolved air flotation: Process water is cleaned for reuse.
10. Waste disposal: The unusable material left over, mainly ink, plastics, filler and short fibers, is called sludge. The sludge is buried in a landfill, burned to create energy at the paper mill or used as a fertilizer by local farmers.

Then I told my students to collect all the used paper in their classes and other class and prepare it for recycling.

Regards