Collection and Transportation
Paper comes to Far West Fibers in two ways. Garbage haulers collect commingled recyclables from the curbside or from businesses and deliver it in trucks. Individuals and groups can bring their sorted paper directly to a Far West Fibers facility. |
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Sorting
Once collected, materials are dropped off from the recycling truck onto the floor of the recycling plant. Front-load tractor operators then move piles of paper onto a conveyor belt that brings the paper up to an elevated sort-line. Material flows through a series of mechanical screens and people to remove everything except the newspaper. As the conveyor moves along employees pick out phone books, plastic bottles, metals, mixed scrap paper and other recyclables and drops them into their respective bins. The then clean newspaper is loaded loose or baled into trucks and is ready to head to the paper mill.
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Re-pulping and Cleaning
When a paper mill is ready to use the recycled paper it will be fed into a drum pulper. Inside the pulper the paper is mixed with water and chemicals, causing it to breakdown into tiny fibers. This pulp passes through holes in the innermost layer of the pulper and enters the outer layer. Non fiber material like plastic, wood, or Styrofoam are removed during the pulping process; and come out the other end of the pulper. The pulp is then pumped through smaller screens and cleaners to remove smaller pieces of waste. |
De-inking and refining
The fibers are cleaned they must go through a de-inking process to remove printing inks and glues. The pulp is fed into a large vat called a flotation cell, where soapy chemicals called surfactants loosen the ink from the fibers. The ink rises to the top of the tank where it is removed. After being de-inked the pulp passes through other cleaners. |
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Papermaking
Finally the pulp is sprayed onto wire screens and sent through rollers. The rollers squeeze the water out of the pulp and the fibers begin to bond and create watery sheets. These sheets pass through more rollers, squeezing out additional moisture and finally move through heated rollers that dry the paper. The paper emerges from the process as giant rolls. These rolls will be cut into pieces of varying widths, packaged and shipped. They will be used to make envelopes, newspapers, paper bags, boxes, copy paper and other paper products. |
