Paper Processing and Packaging

The three types of paper, office paper, mixed paper and newspaper, are moved to the processing center for processing and packaging.  The processing center is located in the Church of God Ministries building on 5th street.

The paper typically arrives in toters, though sometimes it is more convenient to move the paper in plastic bags.  This is particularly true of shredded paper which is very hard to handle if it is dumped loose into the toter. 

The paper is offloaded onto a sorting table where it is scanned for contaminants, and for misclassified paper.  Theoretically the paper has been sorted when it was first put into the recycle containers, but some people are careless when they discard the recyclable material.  Sorting can be efficient if the paper load is clean, but it is very tedious, time consuming and expensive when different types of paper are commingled or when plastic or trash are included in the paper toter.

Once the paper has been cleaned of contaminants it is loaded into gaylords, which are large, open topped boxes that rest on pallets.  These gaylords are made from very heavy corrugated cardboard and are reusable for many loads of material.  When they have reached the end of their life they can be recycled just like any other corrugated cardboard. Each gaylord holds between 300 and 1500 pounds of paper depending on the type and density of the paper.

The gaylords are loaded into a 53’ trailer for shipment to the paper broker who repackages the paper into 1 ton bales and sells it to paper mills for processing into new paper.