ESTIMATING DEGRADATION BEHAVIOR OF RECYCLED PULP-CONTAINING PAPERS BY ACCELERATED AGING TESTS, 2010 TAPPI PEERS Conference

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The utilization rate of wastepaper in Japan reached 63 % in 2009. The use of recovered papers for printing and communication papers has been limited due to their appearance, strength and brightness. However, the utilization rate of recovered paper for higher-grade papers has gradually increased for the past ten years. It is necessary to assess the effect of recycled pulp content on permanence of papers, because a large amount of recovered paper could be utilized for these papers.

To assess permanence of papers with recycled pulp content, accelerated aging tests, such as a dry heat treatment at 105˚C, a moist heat treatment at 80˚C and 65% r.h. and a ASTM’s heat treatment in sealed tube at 100˚C, were applied to predict the long-term effects of natural aging. The high content of recycled pulp had a significant initial strength loss of paper. However, the degradation rates of tearing strength in 70% and 100% recycled pulp-containing papers with the ASTM’s accelerated conditions were remarkably low, compared with that in papers with 100% virgin pulp. The Arrhenius principles test with the ASTM’s aging led to a high half-life value of tearing strength for recycled pulp-containing papers.