How to Buy Recycled Paper - HP Paper, Epson Paper, Specialty Paper

Reducing paper usage is important, but along with reducing paper use, the type of paper used is equally important.  Recycled paper is offered by all the key players out there.  You’ll find HP paper, Epson paper, and a variety of specialty paper.

Printer Paper - Then and Now

Fifteen to twenty years ago, paper was grainy, off-white in color, and had a shorter life. Luckily, recycled paper has come a long way since then and is now equivalent to virgin paper in terms of finish, opacity, whiteness and grams per square meter (a measure of the weight of the paper).

And in terms of the production cycle, using recycled paper fibers (the individual strands of paper that make up the pulp) to make usable pulp consumes less energy and water, than using fibers directly from a tree when manufacturing virgin paper (about 60% to 70% less energy, and 55% less water).

What is Recycled Paper?

The fiber composition is what is taken into consideration when you read the percentage of recycled content on a package of paper. For example, when a package is labeled as “paper is 80% recycled.” That indicates 80% of the fiber comes from recycled content, and 20% comes from virgin fibers.

Pre-consumer pulp is made up of production waste and generally does not require de-inking - the process in which printing ink is removed from recycled paper in order for it to be reused in the production of new paper. But, pre-consumer pulp is limited in supply. That is why the term ‘post-consumer’ is most often seen - this means that recycled pulp consists of paper from offices and homes after use.

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These post-consumer paper products that are recovered for recycling reduces the amount of virgin trees needed to produce paper and cardboard products. And, purchasing products made from post-consumer recycled materials supports the markets for materials recovered by recycling services across the globe. Higher-grade papers generally require some virgin pulp to achieve comparable quality levels as the quality of fiber degrades each time it passes through the recycling process.

Bleaching is the process of whitening recycled paper, which uses different chemicals including chlorine.

What Type of Printer Paper to Buy

Here’s the key element of the decision process. When deciding what kind of recycled paper to purchase, try to purchase paper that is chlorine-free and acid-free, which means it has a lower environmental impact in terms of toxins used in the manufacturing process.

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