Paper Towel Recycling

Improve your organisation’s recycling rates by utilising Shred Station’s new recycling service for used paper hand towels.

Why haven’t paper towels been recyclable until now?

Paper towels have always been difficult and expensive to recycle. This is because most hand towels are manufactured using a wet-strength agent. The wet-strength agent prevents the fibres of the paper towels from disintegrating when wet, meaning they can absorb water and effectively dry hands without falling apart – unlike toilet tissue, for example, which does need to disintegrate.

This wet-strength agent is why, at your place of work, there may be signs in bathrooms that request you put hand towels in the bins provided, rather than down the toilet where they wouldn’t dissolve and would clog up the plumbing. It is also why you wouldn’t use toilet tissue to dry your hands.

In the past, there hasn’t been a cost-effective recycling solution for paper towels. This is because the process of dissolving materials treated with a wet-strength agent has always been very expensive. As hand towels are typically inexpensive, it hasn’t been economically viable for any recycling companies to create a recycled hand towel product that would be affordable for the end user. However, technology has developed over time and an affordable process is now achievable.

So… now you can recycle paper hand towels?

Yes! Paper hand towels can be recycled – but there are some caveats.

• The paper towels must be white tissue paper. Blue rolls cannot be recycled.
  Blue rolls cannot go in your paper hand towel recycling bins. This is because blue roll is made using a very powerful wet-strength agent that makes it unsuitable for re-pulping.
• The paper towels must not be contaminated with any other type of waste.
  Your hand towel recycling bin must not contain any other bathroom waste. This means no wet wipes, sanitary products, soap bottles, or anything else.
• The paper towels must not have been used in a clinical or hazardous setting.
  Bathroom hand towels that have just been used to dry hands are fine. However, paper towels that have been to wipe up things like lubricants, oils, blood, or bodily fluids are not. Any hand towel bins contaminated with these types of materials will not be suitable for recycling.

How does the paper towel recycling service work?

The paper towel recycling service works in 4 simple steps.

1. Segregation
   Use a clear plastic bin liner to collect your used hand towels in a dedicated bin. Ensure your hand towels are separated from all other types of waste with no contamination. When full, move these bin bags to a central area ready for collection. We can provide bins to store hand towels in your central collection area.
2. Collection
   Shred Station will collect your paper towels while we perform our regular scheduled services. If hand towels make up a large percentage of your organisation’s waste, for example, at hospitals where hand dryers are not used, we can schedule additional collections.
3. Compact and Bale
   We will transport the hand towels back to our closest depot. There, they will be baled and compacted, ready for transportation to a recycling mill.
4. Recycling
   When the hand towels arrive at the paper mill, they will be placed into a large pulper. The pulper is essentially a large vat filled with water, rotary mechanisms, and chemicals to dissolve the paper and deactivate the wet-strength agent. Once dissolved, the paper becomes a pulp suitable for reuse. The dissolved pulp is then heated to a high temperature, killing germs and ensuring that the new recycled tissue products it is turned into are both hygienic and safe to use.

We will transport your hand towels to a UK-based paper mill as part of our existing routing. This means no additional emissions are created in the process and, as with all of our services, any emissions will be offset to zero.

To learn more about our services, or request a quotation, please contact us.