WHAT HAPPENS WITH STAPLES, TWINE, WINDOW ENVELOPES, OR OTHER ENCLOSURES IN MY RECYCLED JUNK MAIL?
Tons of mixed paper collected from New York City residences are delivered to the Visy paper mill in Staten Island. At this processing plant, the paper is mixed with water in a huge vat and dissolved into “slurry”. Any non-paper items that are mixed in – such as staples, string, or plastic windows from envelopes – are filtered out before the pulp continues through the mill on its journey to be dried and rolled into new paper. At this point the detritus that is removed from the slurry is discarded, since it would not be economically feasible to separate the various components of this gluey mixture for further processing at a different plant. Dow Chemical asserts that some paper mills burn the plastic windows for fuel, but such incineration is not permitted in NYC. (Visy does fuel its plant partially with the methane produced from the Fresh Kills landfill.) Glassine (cellulose) windows are made from wood fibers; they dissolve completely in the recycling process and are therefore preferabl
Related Questions
- What happens if I don take the staples off of paper; or if I put put catalogs or envelopes with windows or newspapers into the paper bins?
- WHAT HAPPENS WITH STAPLES, TWINE, WINDOW ENVELOPES, OR OTHER ENCLOSURES IN MY RECYCLED JUNK MAIL?
- What happens to PET bottles and containers that aren recycled and end up in landfills?
