REDUCE, REUSE, RELAX, RECYCLE WITH URBAN IMPACT |
Urban Impact is BC owned and operated |
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It starts with the collection of the paper.
Urban Impact collects paper materials directly from your office or place of business. Each day our trucks return to our North Richmond Materials Processing Facility (MRF). The trucks empty their paper into our secure warehouse. |
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Paper needs to be sorted.
Paper is then sorted over moving conveyor. All different grades of paper are sorted by hand. Here are some of different grades of paper we sort: newsprint, kraft paper, white paper, colored paper and magazines. |
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Paper needs to be baled.
Once we have accumulated large amounts of each type of paper - Urban Impact bales the paper into large cubes. |
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Bales are then loaded.
Bales are loaded into export containers or domestic trailers and shipped to the reprocessing mills. Urban Impact ships almost 100 loads per month of paper all over the world. |
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Baled Paper is shipped.
The bales are stored and shipped to processing mills in the Pacific North West and as far away as Korea. |
Once paper is received at a Processing Mill.
- It is soaked in water and agitated to release the fibres, turning them back into pulp.
- The ink is removed - otherwise it will be dispersed into the pulp and a dull grey paper would result. There are two methods: either chemicals can be added which separate the ink from the pulp, and the ink is then washed away with large volumes of water (which is generally reused); or alternatively, air is passed through the pulp producing a foam which will hold at least half the ink, which is then skimmed off. Sometimes a pulp is also bleached using hydrogen peroxide or chlorine, although the former is the more acceptable as it breaks down into water and oxygen on disposal, compared with chlorine which can combine with organic matter to produce toxic pollutants.
- Finishing chemicals are added and the pulp can then be pressed into sheets and dried, or mixed with virgin pulp.
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Although the de-inking process uses water and various chemicals, the chemicals and quantities used are much less than in the manufacture of virgin paper.
Paper cannot be recycled indefinitely as fibres from a tree get shorter each time they are pulped.
These fibres can potentially be recycled between four and six times before they disintegrate and lose their papermaking qualities. Recycled and virgin pulp is often mixed in various proportions depending on the quality of paper being produced.
Want more info? |
- Visit Urban Impact on the web at www.urbanimpact.com or call 604-273-0089
- Or visit the Recycling Council of B.C . www.rcbc.ca or call 604-732-9352 (REC-YCLE)
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