the average American uses over a 100 single rolles each year and if that statistic is taken into account it more than well explains the revenue generated by the industry worldwide a jawdropping $100 billion so how do they make toilet paper the process starts with collecting wood which is done by a specialized machine called a harvester a Timber Harvester machine weighs 18 tons and is pretty much an allrounder when it comes to collecting wood in the forest it can fa trees deim them and then saw up the trunks its efficiency is also something to watch for
as all this takes a typical Harvester less than a minute to do it's important to note that the type of wood that's cut down for toilet paper is bad wood I.E trunks which are crooked or wrong the good sort of wood would be wasted on toilet paper and is used for furniture instead thousands of Tree Trunks cut up by the Harvester end up at a site where the wood is ready to be turned into pulp the raw material for paper and toilet paper as well but before the wood can be turned into pulp it must
be converted into chips first the machine used for this is called a wood chipper and boy is it a giant operation the wood is first cut into uniform pieces and fed into a shaft at the end of which giant drums await it these drums debark the wood a process that removes the tree's outer layer while leaving as much wood on the tree as possible the debarked wood is then cleaned with a water bath that washes Stone and sand out of the logs afterward the wood goes through a metal detector that detects any strain nails or
screws that might have ended up in a particular batch it's important to remove these as they can damage Machinery further down the production process giant rotating knives reduce the wood into tiny wood chips the wood chips then travel down a conveyor belt into giant stock piles the wood chips are composed of fine fibers that need to be further broken down to convert it into toilet paper this is done chemically in large industrial tanks called decomposers which cook the wood chips until it's converted into pulp during the cooking which can last up to 3 hours most
of the moisture in the wood is evaporated wood chips contain about 50% moisture the mixture is then reduced to about 25 tons of cellulose fibers ligman which binds the wood fibers together and other substances out of this about 15 Tons of usable fiber called pulp result from each cooked batch the other raw material that's used for making toilet paper is recycled paper but recycled paper is not so simply obtained as wood is a machine called a sorter is used to separate it from junk that can't be used in the production of toilet paper after the
junk is located into the machine it travels on a conveyor belt where the sorder removes rubbish cardboard and plastic fully automatically first a Civ removes large refu and cardboard then the Recycled p paper is separated from the junk through the use of near infrared sensors as soon as the sensors detect a piece of cardboard or junk a blast of air sends it off the conveyor belt this type of machine can sort 400 tons of recycled paper every day the recycled paper is put into a giant washing machine and passes through a total of 14 stations
until the fiber can be used again for new paper if that sounds like a lot of work that's because it is but you'll be surprised to know that such a hectic process is still more environmentally friendly than using wood for pulp the washing machine breaks down the recycled paper into pulp which then passes through a SI the C eliminates tiny particles of waste from the pulp after decomposition comes fine cleaning fine cleaning uses centrifugation to throw heavy waste particles such as sand or splinters toward the outer walls where they sink to the bottom finally the
pulp is deink by washing it with soap this makes the color particles in the ink attach themselves to the foam which is then then skimmed off the washing process produces a pulp that has a sludge-like appearance to make this sludge more suited for paper production it is treated with bleach and diluted with a lot of water now that the factory has its Hands-On pulp produced both through wood and through recycled paper it's finally time for it to make it into actual paper the paper machine is a 120 M giant monstrosity that produces solid paper from
Pulp in four steps the prepared pulp is fed onto a large mesh screen or belt called a forrer wire as the pulp mixture moves along the wire water drains through the screen leaving a layer of intertwined fibers on top the water removal process is facilitated by vacuum boxes and other drainage Elements which help control the consistency of the pulp and the thickness of the paper the wet paper sheet is then passed through a series of press rolls these rolls squeeze out more water increasing the density of the paper the Pressed sheet is now called wet
web and contains a significant amount of water the wet web is guided through a series of heated rollers or a drying section to remove the remaining water the heat evaporates the water from the wet web leaving a continuous dry paper sheet the paper sheet is still somewhat incomplete in the sense that it has creases on it these are removed with the help of ironing rollers incorporated into the paper machine this long- winded process surprisingly takes only 7 seconds in real Time That's how fast a paper machine really is the completed paper is wound around a
dryer called a Yankee dryer next the paper is creped a process that makes it very soft and gives it a slightly wrinkled look during creping the paper is scraped off the Yankee dryer with a metal blade this makes the sheets somewhat flexible but lowers their strength and thickness so that they virtually disintegrate when wet the paper which is produced at speeds over a mile a minute is then wound on jumbo reels that can weigh as much as 5 tons how does a paper sheet end up becoming toilet paper well it all happens inside a machine
called a toilet paper roller while it's not as big as the paper machine at 80 M long it is still quite imposing and it produces about 500,000 rolls a day multiple large jumbo reels of paper are Unwound at the same time so that their paper sits on top of each other the layers of paper depend on whether the toilet paper is meant to be three ply or too then different patterns are printed onto the paper depending on the brand micro embossing soon follows which gives the toilet paper its characteristic dotted texture micro embossing not only
gives the toilet paper more volume but also makes it soft and comfortable for consumers finally the paper is rolled on to incoming cardboard rolls these rolls are a little bigger than what we're used to and are cut into smaller rolls of various sizes according to the specific requirements of the market such as standard toilet roll sizes or household towel rolls paper companies often maintain their own tree stands in order to ensure the quality of the paper they manufacture the chemicals used in the pulping process are also carefully tested and monitored temperatures at which a slurry
is cooked is ensured too by checking gauges machinery and processes completed paper may be tested for a variety of qualities including stretch opacity moisture content smoothness and color another commodity that is simplified hygiene is toothpaste you'd be surprised to know that it's been around for quite a while and here's how it's made
