How Do We Recycle Paper?
All shredding we receive is driven through our Lindner Micromat 2000 shredding machine. From there, shredding is baled and taken to a recycling centre, where paper is pulped in a tank containing water and chemicals, which remove inks and separate fibres. Once inks and fibres have been removed, the pulp is spun in a container, which cleans the pulp until paper-white. The cleaned pulp is then sprayed onto a conveyor belt, which feeds it through large, heated rollers to remove excess moisture and achieve the correct level of thickness. After being pressed through the rollers, the paper is wound into rolls. These are then cut into paper.
What Paper Can Be Recycled?
Generally speaking, all kinds of paper, card and cardboard from an office environment can be recycled. However, soiled paper – for example napkins, tissues, food cartons and containers, pizza boxes, paper plates and takeaway boxes – cannot be recycled. This is due to the pulping process; if the resultant slurry has been contaminated with food grease or oil, this contaminates the batch, rendering it entirely useless.
How Does Recycling Help the Environment?
Recycling reduces the need for raw materials and cuts down on the energy levels needed to create paper (which is much higher than when using recycled materials). Landfill waste also releases pollutant greenhouse gases; recycling items helps reduce this pollution levels.
How Many Trees Are Saved By Recycling Paper?
Each ton (2000lbs) of paper that is recycled can save 17 trees – that means on average Datashredders save 204 trees per hour, 1,632 trees per day or 8,160 trees per week!
Datashredders also offer collections of baled or palletised waste-paper or cardboard. This material is processed at our recycling facility and then transported to paper mills for the manufacture of paper products. This procedure reduces the need to destroy existing forests, complies with EC directives on paper recycling and reduces the need for landfill.
We are committed to best practice in environmental management and recognise our responsibility to identify, improve and control our impact on the environment from our business operations and recycle material whenever possible.
As we all strive to become more environmentally responsible, especially when it comes to our recycling practices, it is important to understand just what we can, and can’t, actually recycle in order to improve our impact on the environment. When one considers recycling, the things that spring to mind immediately are paper, glass, cans and of course plastic bottles; the everyday things that we are able to put out each week for our household rubbish collection.
Why is plastic recycling important?
Waste plastic is an incredibly versatile and recyclable material, in all its forms, from bottles to film recycling. This means that when it comes to recycling plastic waste we really should be doing more. There are a number of reasons why it is important that we recycle as much as we can:
What is the plastic recycling process?
The first step of the recycling process involves sorting the plastics and separating them out into the different resin types through a series of steps; shredding, sieving and eventually separating the plastics by rates of density. The shredded fragments are also put through a process that removes paper labels and any other impurities, such as the metal numbering and chips if one is shredding credit cards or debit cards. The resulting shredded bits are then melted down into pellets, which are then used in the manufacture of other plastic goods. Some plastic is sorted by colour before it is recycled.
When it comes to plastic recycling all manner of plastic items are recyclable, from polyethylene (PET) plastics (the sort used to make bottles) to low-density polyethylene (LDPE) (the plastics used to make garment bags, bubble wrap and even refuse sacks).
Recycling programmes can have a very positive impact and at Datashredders with our policy that 99% of our shredded paper is recycled, you can see how committed we are to our cause. We pride ourselves on doing things properly and the fact that a huge amount of the paper we shred does not make it to landfill, therefore reducing the impact on the environment. This is part of our commitment to best practice in terms of environmental management, which recognises that we have a responsibility to identify and improve the impact our business operations have on the environment.
Whether it’s plastics or paper you’re looking to get rid of, have you considered the impact recycling could have for your business?
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