If I recycle 100 sheets of paper, how many sheets do I get back?

[xash]

If I throw 100 A4 size printer-paper sheets into the recycle bin, how many sheets of paper does it make after being recycled?

Also, what is the cost of recycling these 100 sheets into the recycled sheets?

[KarlGauss]

I don’t know the answer to your question. But, we have bins very similar tothese where I work. Each one has a notice on it that says when “this bin is filled, one tree will be saved”. I have no idea what size tree it’s referring to.

[Shayna]

Not exactly an answer to your specific question, but some interesting info can be found here: Conservatree

Also not exactly the answer, but their Recycling Brochure has this to say:

Aren’t Recycled Papers More Expensive?

In the past, recycled papers often cost considerably more than virgin papers. Today, many grades such as text and cover (often used for letterhead, brochures and publications) and some coated papers are cost-competitive with virgin papers or even cost less. Copier and offset papers still tend to cost somewhat more, but the price differentials are smaller than ever, usually only a few percent.

When there are cost differences, they are primarily caused by many recycled papers being made on smaller paper machines than virgin papers (creating a difference in economies of scale), by virgin paper mills dropping their prices because of vagaries in the market, and by imbalances caused by a newly capitalized and still-developing recycling system vs. a well-established and industrially integrated tree-pulping production system. Additionally, recycled paper incorporates all its costs into the product, including providing an alternative to disposal, and is not rewarded for its significantly lower energy and water use. Virgin paper costs, on the other hand, are masked by generous government timber, energy and water subsidies and do not incorporate responsibility or costs for the product’s eventual disposal.

Keep in mind that in most cases you’re not going to have 100% recycled paper, but some lesser percentage of “post-consumer materials” having gone into the paper-making process. So really, you’re probably not going to find an answer to “how many sheets of paper does 100 sheets of paper make?” There’s certainly some interesting stuff on that site, though.

KarlGauss, the “number of trees saved” formula can also be found in the first link above.

[psychonaut]

@xash

If I throw 100 A4 size printer-paper sheets into the recycle bin, how many sheets of paper does it make after being recycled?

With a little tape, 6 sheets of A0 and 1 sheet of A2.

[Helix]

It depends on the mill but about 70% to 80% of recycled material going in can make it back out the door as a salable product.

So - 70 or 80 sheets if they were making more office paper out of it. That’s usually not the case.

Office paper - containing a good deal of long-fibered stock - is used to make other products like boxboard (like cereal boxes - multi-ply products - good fiber on the top and bottom, short cheap fiber in between).

On the other hand, cardboard boxes require relatively little processing and up to 90% can be made into salable cardboard products.

The yield is less for products such as newsprint because it is largely made from mechanically produced fiber and the fibers are short (harder to retain in the sheet as the sheet is formed). Some mills offer recycled newsprint containing all recycled fiber (I think Blue Heron Paper in Pomona still does this) but most is a blend of virgin and recycled fiber.

If the recycled material has been printed and the ink needs to be removed (like with most newsprint), the yield is less because some fibers always goes out with the contaminants. And the fiber just wears out over time. It’s just like washing clothes … in time, part of them end up in the lint trap.

And somebody mentioned cost. For newsprint it is about the same.

[Colophon]

Talk of “saving trees” is pretty disingenuous, though, because most paper is made from farmed trees. Should we all be eating less bread in order to “save wheat”?

[xash]

Thanks for your answers.

[xash]

Thanks for your answers.

[DrDeth]

@Colophon

Talk of “saving trees” is pretty disingenuous, though, because most paper is made from farmed trees. Should we all be eating less bread in order to “save wheat”?

**Cite ** please.

[boytyperanma]

I don’t have a cite, but do agree with Colophon’s statment. Very little older growth trees are chopped down for the purpose of making paper. Small trees and the useless branches of larger trees cut down for other purposes is all the paper industry needs to work with. They are kinda the scrap collectors of the lumber industry. Farmed trees meet the paper mills requirements just fine.

[WolfpackJeep]

I don’t know about paper, but I do know that farmed trees (especially pine) are what goes into making deck boards – my parents sold some to Georgia Pacific several years ago.