Paper products that can be recycled include cardboard containers, wrapping papers, and office papers. The most commonly recycled paper product is newsprint. In newspapers recycling, old newspapers are collected and searched for contaminants such as plastic bags and aluminum foil. The paper goes to a processing plant where it is mixed with hot water and turned into pulp in a machine that works much like a big kitchen blender. The pulp is screened and filtered to remove smaller contaminants.
The pulp then goes to a large vat where the ink separates from the paper fibers and floats to the surface. The ink is skimmed off, dried and reused as ink or burned as boiler fuel. The cleaned pulp is mixed with new wood fibers to be made into paper again. Paper and paper products such as corrugated board constitute about 37 percent of the discards in the United States, making it the most plentiful single item in landfills. Experts estimate the average office worker generates about 5 kg (about 11 lb.) of wastepapers per month. Every ton of paper that is recycles saves about 1.4 m3 of landfill space. One ton of recycled paper saves 17 pulpwood trees.