What exactly is tissue paper?
First, let us define what tissue paper is. Tissue paper is a soft, light paper consisting of low-grade fiber, made primarily from recycled paper and then packed in bundles or foldings ready for use. Therefore, when we talk of customized tissue paper, we refer to tissue that has been made in diverse designs to highlight the brand of a company by showing its logo, colors, and art that separate it from other companies of similar or different niches.
Why should you recycle custom tissue?
Environmental pollution has become rampant in recent years, mostly from non-biodegradable waste. By recycling paper, you aid in lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Paper recycling uses 70% less water and energy than growing new trees to make paper. On the brighter side, One ton of recycled paper conserves 17 trees and 3.3 cubic yards of landfill space.
Can you recycle customized tissue paper?
Yes!
The Material Recovery Facility (MRF) is a facility that separates recyclables from the garbage stream using both humans and machines. It is well equipped to sort through all the materials used to customize the tissue and separate the impurities, such as glitters. The end product is usually a fresh batch of de-gradable fiber that you can recycle into new tissue.
Generally, tissue paper is biodegradable and can be recycled as long as foil, plastics, and or glitter do not contaminate it. During recycling, when the paper is made into a pulp and put in a chemical solution, any ink is taken out and then washed off by air bubbles attached to it. Similarly, you can recycle Custom tissue paper inked using a standard printer or pen ink with no issues.
However, with custom tissue paper, it can be challenging to know which paper has these contaminants and which ones do not; deciding to recycle is more complicated. This is where the scrunch test comes in.
When you are trying to decide whether to recycle tissue paper or throw it in the waste bin, take the paper and compress it in your fist. If the custom tissue paper maintains the formation of a ball first, recycling is safe. Otherwise, if the paper bounces back, it contains biodegradable contaminants, and you should throw it in the waste bin.
Moreover, it is an industrial and universal rule that used paper tissues, customized, cannot be recycled. It's the leading item on a list of things, such as paper towels, paper plates, napkins, and other paper items that are not suitable for recycling.
These paper products cannot be cleaned during recycling and will undoubtedly contaminate other clean papers. Their exposure to food, bodily fluids, oil, and dirt is the primary cause. Discarding such items is the best cause of action.
All hope is not lost, however not lost. Just because you cannot industrially recycle custom tissue paper does not mean you cannot reuse them. Here are a few ways:
Gift wrap
You may use tissue paper to wrap a gift for a birthday or Christmas. You can use them to wrap gifts, especially from the company. Hence this saves not only on cost but also on environmental pollution. Anytime you can save the promotional tissue paper you get throughout the year. It's simpler to store and keep organized since it's so thin.
Garland
Garlands are a great way to use recycled tissue paper and reduce the expense of your festivities because they can be used for many different occasions. For ideas, have a look at the photo above! Better still, all you need to do to create something unique is smooth out the tissue paper and fold it half lengthwise, then widthwise.
Strips of roughly 1.5 to 2 cm should be cut toward the grove, leaving a few centimeters at the folded edge.
Keep all the strips intact and untangled as you unfold the paper and put down the individual pieces. Once everything is flat, begin rolling from one edge and twisting in the middle.
Twist the garland string until you can make a loop; then, thread the loop through the garland. Create your low-cost ornament out of recycled tissue paper; make a knot or use glue to keep it in place.
And so much more. There is no limit to the creativity and artistry that can birth from unique masterpieces from custom tissues. Therefore, to answer your question, custom tissue can be recycled using well-equipped machines such as the MRF. You can make not only fresh batches of tissue but also compost.