Recycling of paper proves to be a blessing in disguise:

It takes 17 full grown trees to make one tonne of paper. The awareness of this one fact can encourage people to take serious steps towards recycling of paper. Recycling is a process driven by the goodwill to save the environment from running out of its precious and valuable resources. It is the collection of used articles subjected to further processing that utilizes minimum energy in the re-manufacture of the same product with most of its properties retained.

Paper is one of the most exhaustively consumed product in our daily routine. It is an integral part of every home, business, educational institution, hospitals, courts, offices and various other establishments. It occupies the major portion of the wastes disposed off everyday making it the topmost material that is used and disposed. By recycling just one morning newspaper we can save cutting down of 41,000 trees and greatly reduce the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted due to process carried out during waste disposals also concisely known as carbon footprint (a measure of carbon dioxide released). While the manufacturing process of paper involves chopping up or burning the trees leading to humongous loss of energy and fuel, the recycling process uses 60% lesser energy for the same.

Papers that can be easily recycled are newspapers, shredded paper, phonebooks, cardboard, magazines, envelopes, calendars etc. and these can be refurbished to form new products like egg cartons, paper towels, tissue, toilet paper, newspaper, paper bags, notebooks, stamps and so on. The best part of paper recycling is that there is minimal usage of chemicals like bleaches which in turn is safer for the environment.

Some of the major benefits of recycling paper are reduction in the amount of landfill space occupied, considerable reduction in the number of trees being used up for its production, the resulting reduction in deforestation that would otherwise lead to increased erosion of soil, disruption of water cycle, loss of biodiversity, flooding and drought, climate changes, recycling of paper also reduces emission of sulfur dioxide, minimizes use of fossil fuels and finally saves immeasurable amount of energy.

The steps towards recycling of paper can be carried out on a personal basis,smaller or larger scale. As an initial step that an individual can contribute towards successful recycling of paper is to sort out paper from other materials in trash, and categorize them according to their type. You may then take your collection of used paper to a local recycling center or recycling bin. These huge chunks of used paper are then transported to a paper mill where the paper is stored in warehouses and used up as required. Paper is grouped according to their various grades of quality. These are then passed on to large conveyors into a pulping machine wherein the pulpier chops the paper in a mixture of water and some chemicals, into small pieces. The mixture is then heated and tiny cellulose strands are formed following its breakdown. The mixture is then screened and filtered to remove unwanted impurities, is cleaned, deinked- a process undertaken to eliminate inks off the printed parts of the paper, refined, bleached and stripped off color. This product is sent into final processing which gives out sheets of white paper ready to be used yet again.