sustainability
Review On the Conversion of Paper Waste and Rejects into High-Value Materials and Energy Hatem Abushammala 1, * , Muhammad Adil Masood 1 , Salma Taqi Ghulam 1 and JiaMao 2
1 Environmental Health and Safety Program, College of Health Sciences, Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi 59911, United Arab Emirates 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Al Ghurair University, International Academic City, Dubai 37374, United Arab Emirates * Correspondence: hatem.abushammala@adu.ac.ae; Tel.: +971-0-25015290 Abstract: The pulp and paper industry (PPI) is a major contributor to the global economy, but it also poses a challenge for waste disposal, as it generates large amounts of several waste streams. Among these, paper rejects are generated during the papermaking process and could account for up to 25% of the produced paper. Moreover, hundreds of millions of tons of paper are produced annually that end up in landfills if not burnt or recycled. Furthermore, the PPI significantly contributes to climate change and global warming in the form of deforestation and water and air pollution. Therefore, the impact of this industry on the sustainability of natural resources and its adverse environmental health effects requires special attention. This review focuses on discussing the sustainable routes to utilize paper waste and rejects from the PPI towards a circular economy. At first, it discusses the industry itself and its environmental impact, followed by the possible sustainable approaches that can be implemented to improve papermaking processes as well as waste management systems, including paper recycling. The literature indicates that paper recycling is crucial because, if appropriately designed, it significantly lowers greenhouse gas emissions, water and resources consumption, and manufacturing costs. However, several concerns have surfaced about the different chemicals that are used to improve recycling efficiency and recycled paper quality. Furthermore, paper recycling is limited to up to seven times. This review, therefore, goes on to highlight several sustainable waste management routes for paper waste utilization other than recycling by emphasizing the concept of converting paper waste and rejects into energy and high-value materials, including biofuels, biohydrogen, biomethane, heat, nanocellulose, hydrochar, construction materials, and soil amendments. Both the benefits and shortcomings of these waste management routes and their applications are discussed. It becomes clear from this review that sustainable management solutions for paper waste and rejects are implementable, but further research and development are still needed.
Citation: Abushammala, H.; Masood, M.A.; Ghulam, S.T.; Mao, J. On the Conversion of Paper Waste and Rejects into High-Value Materials and Energy. Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 6915. https://doi.org/ 10.3390/su15086915
Keywords: paper waste; paper reject; pulp; waste management; recycling; circular economy
Received: 18 January 2023 Revised: 3 April 2023 Accepted: 17 April 2023 Published: 20 April 2023
1. Introduction Paper is produced from the cellulose pulp fibers obtained from wood pulping. It was first produced in China, spread to Europe, and has since been manufactured all over the world [1]. Over the years, paper manufacturing processes have changed in terms of the techniques and chemicals used, but wood remains the most widely used source of fibers in the industry [2]. Despite digitization, paper is still consumed in offices, magazines, and newspapers. It also contributes to 31% of the packaging market globally [3]. The pulp and paper industry (PPI) is a major contributor to the global economy despite the low-profit margins due to well-known challenges in pricing and fulfilling consumer requirements. This industry also faces constant pressure to reduce emissions that cause water and air pollution [4]. Deforestation is also a challenge for the PPI, as roughly 4 billion trees are cut down every year to serve as the raw material for paper making [5]. Most of the recent
Copyright: © 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
Sustainability 2023 , 15 , 6915. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15086915
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
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