Paper – Facts and Benefits

10 litres of water are needed to make one piece of A4 paper

24

It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper

Every tree produces enough oxygen for 3 people to breathe

Office paper is recycled into paper towels, tissue paper and toilet paper

If everyone recycled their daily newspaper once a week, we would save about 30 million trees a year

Recovered paper fibre has been used in South Africa as a raw material since 1920

Tetra pak cartons used for packaging products such as milk, juice and custard are 100% recyclable, and consist of 75% virgin paper board

An estimated 7 million hectares of forest are lost each year. This is equal to a loss of 16 rugby fields every minute

If deforestation continues, it will take less than 100 years to destroy all the rainforests on earth

Paper Recycling Process

A waste sorting facility collects and separates the paper into types and grades

The paper is shredded and mixed with water and chemicals, and heated to create a pulp

The pulp is screened to remove unwanted materials such as plastic

The pulp is de-inked by washing it with chemicals and bleached if white paper is desired

The pulp is spread onto moving screens where the water is drained

Heated metal rollers dry the paper sheets

The paper sheet is rolled into large rolls and shipped to plants where other paper products are made