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​>​ Why do you have HDPE in your Stone Paper products?
Why do you have HDPE in your Stone Paper products?
Updated 8 months ago by Anders Ankarlid
We have recycled HDPE (20%) in Stone Paper to bind the reused stone leftovers.
What is HDPE?
HDPE is photodegradable by nature; it's interesting to note that plastic manufacturers have been attempting to make polymers resistant to UV light degradation, in order to make certain plastic products more durable, especially when exposed to direct UV light (through the addition of carbon black or chemical UV inhibitors). This natural characteristic of HDPE is an advantage for Stone Paper.
With the last decade's environmental awareness and ecologically minded efforts, more and more environmentalists' pressure has been exerted on numerous government officials, to choose better plastic for products which may end up in nature, so as to reduce and eventually eliminate harming nature because of our laziness or convenience. It's interesting to note that laws have been passed requiring plastic rings connecting beverage cans to be either, bio, photo, or chemically degradable.
Up to now, after many tests, the conclusion that spontaneous chemical plastic degradation does not seem feasible has been reached. Thus, photodegradation was explored, namely in plastics which are sensitive to UV degradation. HDPE's relatively quick photodegradation (the speed of course depends on the amount and thickness of HDPE; stone paper has a very low percentage and is not in bulky form) makes it a good environmentally minded choice.
Isn't plastic dangerous?
Plastic is bad for the environment. Period. However, the plastics we use are only a recycled that burns completely free. So we don't add any new plastic to earth and due to the fact that we don't use: Trees, water, acids or bleach it is a way better alternative than pulp paper.
Compared with Pulp Paper, Stone Paper is a much more environmental friendly alternative.
Making traditional paper
Traditional paper is made from wood pulp, mainly made from trees such as spruce or pine. Some of the top wood-pulp producing countries globally are the U.S., Canada, Brazil, China, Sweden and Finland. Many people mistakenly think paper is a natural product that isn't very harmful to produce, but that couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, the production of traditional paper consumes vast quantities of raw material and energy, in addition to lots of chemicals and water. The first step in producing traditional pulp-paper is to cut down large quantities of timber, which is a big contributor to global deforestation.
These tree logs are then passed through a debarker, where the bark is taken away, and through chippers, where the wood is cut into pieces. The resulting wood chips are then pressure-cooked with a mixture of water and chemicals in a digester, to create basic wood-pulp. The pulp is then washed, refined, and bleached and turned into to slush in a beater, after which dyes, coatings and other additives are added to the mix.
Once the pulp is ready, the cellulose fibers in the pulp need to be separated from the water. In fact, 90% of wood-pulp is water, so the separation results in large quantities of waste-water. The dry pulp is then sprayed upon moving mesh screens to make a layered mat of paper, which goes through several energy-consuming processes to dry.
What is recycled paper?
When paper is recycled, it's taken from our recycling bins to a recycling plant, where different types of paper and packaging is separated into types and grades. The paper is then washed with soapy water to remove inks, plastic film, staples and glue.
The paper is put into a large holder where it is mixed with water to create recycled pulp. The recycled pulp is then mixed with virgin wood-pulp to create different grades of recycled paper, that can be used for things like newspapers, toilet paper or packaging material.
Recycled paper can only be recycled between five to seven times in total and in recycled paper 60% virgin paper is always put in.
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