The paper recycling process is one of the most important processes in the environment. As we know, many environmental problems such as floods and landslides are the adverse effects of a lack of trees which are partly used for the manufacture of new paper.

Therefore, it is important to do the paper recycling process, considering that paper usage has not decreased significantly even though it has now entered the digital era.

Especially in the world of education, paper consumption is still very high even though the world of digitalization is now growing. According to GNFI, paper consumption in Indonesia per capita is 27 kg/person/year. Or it can be said that 11 reams / 11 tree trunks with the amount of paper waste in Indonesia per day reaches 17 thousand tons.

The high consumption of paper in Indonesia must be recycled. Even before it becomes waste, the paper produced requires a lot of energy and air. For example, to produce one kilogram of paper it takes 324 liters of water, and also produces a lot of solid and liquid waste.

The paper recycling process can not only be done once, but can be done up to five to seven times. After being recycled many times, the fibers get shorter and shorter. When the fibers are too short, the paper recycling process can no longer be carried out. However, paper can be used as a composting material.

Unlike the production of new paper, the paper recycling process requires much less energy. This means that producing one ton of recycled paper into new paper can save 17 trees (Purdue Research Foundation and US Environmental Protection Agency, 1996).

In addition, the use of 7,000 gallons of water, 380 gallons of oil, 3.3 cubic yards or about 2.52 cubic kilometers of landfill space (TPA), and 4,000 KwH of energy can also be minimized (Onondaga Resource Recovery Center).

Along with the times, paper recycling is increasingly in demand, because it is quite profitable, both from an economic and environmental perspective. So, what is the actual process of recycling paper to become new paper? Here's the review.

Collection is the first step in the paper recycling process. Usually, paper makers buy raw materials for recycling from collectors.

To date, apart from used newspapers and magazines, most of the recycled paper comes from industrial and commercial sources because it is the cleanest and most economical to collect. The collection system that operates must be cost-effective and regulated so that the volume and quality of paper for recycling can be maintained.

Once collected, the quality of the paper will be measured and graded. Waste paper of the same quality will be combined, because the number of fibers is the same and can be extracted from the pulp. From here, the paper is transported to the paper mill's recycling facility, where the quantity and quality (cleanliness and type) of the paper are measured.

After that, obtained paper will be further sorted according to its surface and structure. For example, very thin paper such as the Quran will be separated from thicker paper such as paper folders.

In this regard, this sorting stage is important, because various grades of materials are produced based on the recovered materials.

The next step is finely grated to break the ingredients into small pieces. After that, large amounts of water are added and other chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide, sodium hydroxide, and sodium silicate are added to break up and separate the paper fibers.

The resulting slurry solution is known as slurry which has the consistency of oatmeal and is the raw material that is later used to make paper.

This process of turning paper into pulp is known as pulping. The next paper recycling process is to perform pulp screening which separates solids using a screen in pulp suspension. Large particles will later be cut off in the screen. While the smaller ones will pass through a small hole filter.

The next stage of paper recycling is adding the pulp to a floating tank, where the chemicals and air bubbles in it will remove the dye as well as the ink.

Hydrogen peroxide and other bleaching agents can also be added to further enhance the whiteness of the paper. This step continues continuously until the final process is ready to be carried out.

Sometimes dye is added to the paper recycling process to create a color product other than white. In some cases, blue and black dyes are added to make the printing paper bright white.

This drying process is the finishing stage of the paper recycling process, where the pulp will pass through rollers that remove excess water.

Pulp or pulp can go through a self-recycling process, or it can also be mixed with pure wood fiber to increase the strength and smoothness of the paper.

Next, the sheet will pass through a roller that is heated by steam at a temperature of 130 degrees Fahrenheit or about 54 degrees Celsius. This paper recycling process is useful for forming long rolls of flat paper sheets. One roll of paper can have a width of about 9 meters and weigh up to 27 tons.

In this paper recycling process, coatings such as potato starch are sometimes added to the paper to prevent the spread of ink as is the case when writing on paper towels. Then the ends of the rolls are trimmed and recycled to make new pulp.

The resulting roll of paper will be divided into smaller pieces, then sent to various manufacturers who use the paper to make products such as newspapers, wrapping paper, printed paper, as well as blown cellulose insulation which is often used as heat or cold insulation on roofs. As additional information, the whole process of recycling paper from newspapers takes about 7 days.

Almost all types of paper can be recycled, including magazines, corrupted carton, printer paper, packaging paper, newspaper, milk carton, up to juice carton. Meanwhile, used tissue and paper plates coated with food wax cannot be recycled.

Products of this paper recycling process are used in daily life. you may not know you have used it.

In fact, an estimated 200 million tons of paper and cardboard are produced annually from recycled paper. The most common examples of products from the paper recycling process are white printing paper, toilet paper and tissue, paper towels and napkins, greeting cards, cardboard, magazines, and newspapers.

The paper recycling process can be said to be one solution to overcome environmental problems caused by tree cutting.

There are several stages of the paper recycling process, starting from collection, sorting, shredding and pulping, de-inking, and drying as the final stage. The products produced from paper recycling include white printing paper, toilet paper and tissue, paper towels and napkins, greeting cards, cardboard, magazines, and newspapers.