Getting sorted

Getting sorted
By Euronews
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Here in Romania, these children are learning to recycle paper – and they take it very seriously. They want to save forests, but recycling also saves energy and water.

In Bucarest, companies collect used paper – and ry to encourage people to sort paper properly as this akes recycling easier.

At a collecting point, the paper is sorted and loaded into a lorry. The next stop is the recycling factory. But when paper hasn’t been properly sorted, when it’s mixed up with plastic and different sorts of paper are all mixed up together, it takes more time and energy to recycle it.

Here in Austria, which is the EU’s recycling champion, scientists and engineers have built a new machine to improve the sorting process. This machine separates the plastic from the paper, and sorts cardboard from paper.

The wrong paper in the wrong place prevents the industry from improving productivity and reducing recycling costs. This makes recycled paper cheaper than new paper made from wood pulp.

Developed by EU research project SORT IT, this plant uses new technology and developers say that this machine will be fully automatic when finished. This new sorting plant aims to increase the recovery of used paper all across Europe. The advantages for the environment are huge.

Back in Romania, it’s evident that sorting is a vital part of recycling used paper and cardboard. And this is the final product – all this will be used to make cardboard boxes. And that completes the cycle. Now the boxes re-enter the market for half of the price of cardboard made from new fibres.

So to help develop the recycled paper industry – let’s all give them our waste paper.

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