Recycling Is Like Baking a Cake

In baking, the ingredients you put into the beater are what determine the kind of cake you’ll end up with. Same is true with certain kinds of recycling.
For example, old newspapers are put in beater (like a hug Waring blender). De-inking chemicals are added and the inks are removed. Then, the pulp goes through a Jorden which separates the fibers and then through a filter.
Next, it is fed on to a felt blanket that goes over a series of hot steam-filed drums and dryers. As this process goes on and dries, the fibers stick together, and then it is formed into a new sheet that is rolled on cylinders.
Voila! — all new newsprint.
Of course, there is much more to it than this, but we thought this special anecdote would give you a general idea.
We receive or purchase the recyclable materials you separate and collect in your households and businesses. It is picked up or brought to our processing plants where our employees further sort and separate the material into different grades.
The sorted material is then placed on a conveyers belts, fed into a baler machine, which tightly compresses and ties the material with wire. Sometimes, the material has to be shredded before it can be baled.
We than sell this material and load it onto trucks or into containers to be shipped to mils within the United States and around the world. The mills then process the material and create new material for use in new products.
In the United States alone, we use millions of tons of just paper materials annually. So, where do we put all this solid waste?
Our landfills are filling up, and we are running out of places to put the waste. Incinerators can be costly and have other environmental challenges. By reusing material we have already produced, we can help preserve the environment, conserve energy, and save money too.
For example, there will be fewer trees cut down for pulping, therefore conserving our forest. Also, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, making paper from recycled material uses less water and energy consumption than making paper from original sources.
In addition, recycling paper products produces less pollution than the conventional pulping and chemical processes to make new. Finally, recycling creates new jobs, and generates revenue.
—Submitted by Ruthie Whitehead, Raff Recycling.