2004 was a good year for buying paper on the web

Last year proved to be a good year for Internet sales. Statistics illustrate nearly 50% of Americans with Internet access have broadband service – and – this percentage continues to increase. Most folks in USA tend to be very busy, have both Mom and Dad working, witness $2.00/gallon gas prices, and enjoy the convenience of web shopping. Current generation of kids appear to be spending more time in front of the computer than the
television. All good for Paper.com!!

Paper Safety

Today I was asked by a mom whether a "Paper Safety Index" exists. She writes:

I am looking for a "paper safety index" to determine safety of paper for infant exploration. I have several teachers wanting to set up a paper installation for infants aged 6 months to 12 months to crawl around on, reach up to and touch, and generally be surrounded by the sounds. smells and textures of paper. Parents at our center want to know if they should be concerned about certain chemicals in paper. Can you help?

First, here is a link that answers the question, "How is Paper Recycled?"
Paper University - All About Paper

Although that article mentions that hydrogen peroxide and chlorine used in the papermaking process, I think that you want more specific answers regarding the safely of chemicals used in papermaking and how they might affect a baby who might eat or sniff or roll around on paper.

Here is an article that describes the chemical processes used to produce fine and print paper. That site also provides links talking about the specific chemicals used in the paper making process, Hydrogen Peroxide
and Chlorine.

Here is an article specifically discussing with environmentally friendly papers. The main argument of the article is that bleaching is bad for the environment and therefore we should be buying bleach-free papers. Unfortunately it does not deal specifically with the question of how much bleach and other toxins remains in finished paper and how those chemicals affect us.

So, I looked up paper allergies and found articles specifically on Rosin allergies a substance naturally occurring in wood and paper.

So, I looked up "paper making ingredients" and found this excellent article by Mohawk Paper on what is in their papers. But, again, it does not specifically state that these ingredients are safe to eat.

When I visited a cotton paper making plan and took that picture of the cotton slurry I asked the papermakers whether that slurry was safe to eat. They said that it was basically only cotton in chlorinated water and was probably safe to eat. These elevated levels of chlorine made it about as dangerous as drinking the swimming pool water at the local YMCA which, while it wouldn't kill you, it's not a good idea. When the water drains away during the papermaking process and is recycled to be used again, that most of the chlorine is goes with it and the balance of the chlorine evaporates into the airduring the drying process.

However, if you ask about colored papers you will get a different reaction. I will ask the question of some of the leading paper makers on the question of dyes in particular, and paper ingredients in general, and continue this topic on antoher date.

Making Paper - Photo of Cotton Slurry

This is a photo of the slurry just before it enters the paper machine. This particular photo taken at Esleeck Manufacturing in western Massachusetts shows the cotton slurry made from recycled cotton fabric (old hospital bedsheets and denim blue jeans?) which have been made into a cotton soup, called slurry, and bleached. This slurry will enter the paper making machine in a few minutes. As it moves through the machine the water drains out through a wire mesh. As the water drains away the cotton fibers in the slurry align themselves so as to bind together. This paper machine is about 100 yards long. By the time the slurry-turned-to-paper passes through dozens of rollers from the beginning of the machine to the end the water has all drained away and the paper is trimmed and put on a roll which has a 40 inch length, about four feet in diameter and weighs about a ton.



Supersize this image: Esleeck Paper Slurry

Copy paper is poised for a fall . . .

Prices of uncoated free-sheet grades sold to merchants, particularly cut-size copy paper, have dropped by as much as $40/ton over the last couple months because of an inventory bubble. Prices also have declined to the large office superstores for future deliveries. Upshot: Analysts expect retail slippage soon off the recent four-month average $830/ton spot market price.

Merchants say that major U.S. producers have been trying hard to hold the list price of standard truckload quantities of bellwether 50-lb offset at list price levels. But, reports on Paperloop.com indicate discounts are available on larger volumes, and that smaller mills have been offering discounts to fill holes in their order books. Some value-added grades such as opaque papers are being more widely discounted and have declined about $40/ton in price since last autumn. Uncoated free-sheet grades such as offset, lightweight opaque and trade book are also facing more competition in the market from super high-bright substitute grades. North American shipments of uncoated free-sheet declined 1.8% in December, according the Pulp and Paper Products Council and American Forest & Association. So, for all of 2004, North American shipments were up only 1.2% from 2003—and mills ended the year shipping at only 82% of capacity in December, down from an average of 90% for the year. Mill inventories ended the year at 42,000 metric tons.

Fraser Paper mills sold to Smart Paper

This is a good storyabout the sale of Fraser Papers mill to Smart Papers. Did you know that the investors behind Smart Papers, Sun Capital, also own Sam Goody and Breugger's Bagels?

FineStationery.com

Did you know that Mr. Paper.com was high school classmate with Mr. FineStationery.com? It's true. We bumped into each other last year at the stationery show in New York. Well, this town is not big enough for the two of us so Mr. FineStationery left town and set up operations in Virginia. Mr. Paper remains in Connecticut. Is there a rivalry in the making. Absolutely. Mr. FineStationery has an impressive site, excellent customer service and a stellar reputation in the industry. I wish him all the best and we hope to do as good a job with paper as he's done in fine stationery.

FineStationery.com

The Birth of the Paper.com Blog

This is my first blog. I am known as Mr. Paper. It is my intention to make this blog a generally useful source of paper news. Things change and this blog may devolve and be both useless and not about paper, but I'm really going to try to stick to the subject.