The Effects of Multiple Recycling on Deinkability and Properties of Recycled Paper

This study examined the effects of multiple recycling on deinkability and properties of recycled paper from laser computer printout (LCPO). First, alkaline paper with a 20% printed area was disintegrated by TAPPI standard disintegrator at room temperature. After dewatering, the pulp was flotated and dried in oven at80$^{\circ}C$ for 24 hrs. A sequence of wetting, disintegrating, flotating and drying was one recycling cycle and this cyclic treatment was repeated from zero to five times. The recycled handsheet dropped to 90% of the original brightness after five cycles, and lost the most brightness after five cycles, and lost the most brightness in the first two cycles. However, it had a gain of 10% in opacity after five cycles as the same as the case of nonprinting. And, in this study, the method for determining residual ink(toner) content in recycled handsheets ere established by means of SEM-EDX and Py-GC. The change of residual ink percentage on recycled paper showed the effect of recycling numbers on deinkability of waste paper. A slight decrease in deinkability was noted for the recycled handsheets, which may be due to the change of fiber surface free energy connected with fiber swelling.