Paper

21 Paper Would you be surprised to learn that the book you're reading was once a tree? To be more accurate, the paper in the book was once a tree. That's right, the story of paper begins somewhere in a forest. Trees are wood, which is made up of millions of tiny fibres. Paper is made by separating these fibres. But wait, we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's go back to the forest, where it all starts. Trees grow in forests or on planted farms. When they reach a certain size, they are cut down by tree cutters. They are then transported to a factory known as a pulp mill. This is where turning trees into paper really begins. First, the wood logs are chopped into small pieces called chips. The chips are then put into a liquid (mostly water) and are turned into a thick mush. This process is called pulping. The end product is called pulp. You can see why the place where all this takes place is called a pulp mill.

The next step is the most important. The pulp must be dried. At first, it is nearly all water, but a two-step process dries it out completely. First, the pulp is sprayed onto screens and the water begins to drip away. Large rollers are then rolled over the pulp, squeezing more water out of it. At this point, the pulp begins to look more like paper as the fibres begin to join and bond. The last stage is the final drying. This takes place in a hot drum filled with steam. The partially dried pulp enters the drying machine in wide sheets. It still has a lot of water in it. Hot rollers squeeze out the water as they roll over it. Slowly, the pulp is dried and flattened. It is now paper. It is put on large rolls and shipped all over the world. It takes a lot of trees to make paper. That's why recycling is a really good idea. Paper can be recycled easily because it's made of fibres. All you have to do is take old paper, turn it back into pulp, and dry it out again. You can save a tree and help the environment at the same time.