Tons of mixed paper Sanitation collects for recycling is delivered to the Visy paper mill on Staten Island. At this processing plant, the paper is mixed with water in a huge vat and dissolved into "slurry." Any non-paper items that are mixed in – such as staples, string, or plastic windows from envelopes – are filtered out before the pulp continues through the mill on its journey to be dried and rolled into new paper.
At this point the detritus that is removed from the slurry is discarded, since it would not be economically feasible to separate the various components of this gluey mixture for further processing at a different plant.
Glassine (cellulose) windows are made from wood fibers; they dissolve completely in the recycling process and are therefore preferable.
Please do continue to include all junk mail and any kind of envelopes with your mixed paper recyclables. See what you can do to reduce junk mail.
ALSO SEE:
what to recycle with sanitation
what
happens to recyclables
recycling tours
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