Paper-Recycling System: Part 4

About 80% of the total paper production in the European OECD countries fall into the following groups:

Newsprint 14%
Printing and writing 35%
Household and sanitary 6%
Liner board 10%
Fluting 9%
Folding boxboard 7%

Newsprint and printing and writing qualities are used for graphic products, as the other qualities are converted into different paper products like corrugated board, boxes, wrapping paper, toilet paper, and so on.

An estimated average furnish for different paper qualities in Western Europe in 1986 can be summarized like the following. The largest share was chemical pulp, about 38%. Over 80% of this share was bleached, with about 65% being bleached sulfate pulp. Mechanical pulps were used in about 20% of the mixture and reuse pulp (recycled fibers) in about 28% of the overall fiber furnish. Mechanical pulps were predominantly used for the production of newsprint and printing- and writing-paper qualities. Chemical pulps were most often used in folding boxboards and soft paper qualities. Semi-chemical pulp was mainly used for fluting production. Reuse pulp was mostly used for the components of corrugated board, liner, and fluting and for soft paper qualities. Semi-chemical pulp had only a marginal share, about 2% of the total furnish mix. The share of non-fibrous materials, clay, starch, coating materials, and so on, was estimated to be about 25% for printing and writing qualities, and for the other qualities it was estimated to be negligible. This corresponds to an overall average of about 10% for non-fibrous materials in base paper and board.