Paper Recycling: The Trail

A total of 650 kilometres of paper is recycled daily in Dubai and almost all of it comes out of one plant.

Yet, that figure represents only a fraction of the city's waste paper generation per day. To highlight the importance of recycling ahead of Earth Day (April 22), XPRESS went behind the scenes of the UAE's largest such facility to walk readers through this environment-friendly process.

Union Paper Mills (UPM) has been in business for almost 20 years. Its plant in the Al Quoz Industrial Area produces 450 tonnes of recycled paper daily.

A total of 800 workers comb the entire country to feed UPM's plant with around 2,000 tonnes of waste, but still recyclable paper.

UPM also imports about 500 kilogramme bales of waste paper to keep feeding the plant.

“No Smoking'' signs are posted everywhere for obvious reasons. Workers sift through the heaps to remove unwanted items like plastic or glass.

Bulldozers dump mounds at a time onto a sloping conveyor belt. The raw paper is fed into a pulper, a giant metallic drum that spins endlessly.

Chemicals and water are added to dissolve glue, wax and colours in the raw paper. This is where paper is converted back into pulp, the basic form. The fibres are separated from each other at this stage.

The pulp is piped out into huge basins that slowly stir and filter the slimy product. The fibres rise to the surface and are clarified. As the mixture reaches 97 per cent water and 3 per cent pulp, it is ready to be flushed again through pipes which open up in the paper machine.

Travelling at 7 metres a second, a conveyor sheet zips across the machine. Water is drained underneath the belt as the sheets pass through dryers; only 5 per cent will survive the relentless heat and pressure. A

t the end of the line, the pulp fibres reunite to become paper once more. Sheets of new paper are placed on a rewinder, where they are neatly cut and rolled. The entire process usually takes four hours for every tonne.

Where To Take Your Discarded Paper

Municipality Recycling Centres:

Recyclables are also collected at the following Emarat Petrol Stations