From wood to fiber

To develop new circular initiatives, it is important to understand how paper is constructed.

From wood to fiber

Papier bestaat voornamelijk uit vezelstoffen, hulpstoffen en water. De vezelstoffen vormen het hoofdbestanddeel van papier.

Paper is primarily made of fibers, additives and water. The fibers are the main component of paper.

veyzle is pleased to explain the different types of fibers and where they come from. Then you'll learn all about the extracting of raw fiber materials. Looking at the origin of fibers, we can identify the following types:

• vegetable fibers
• animal fibers
• synthetic fibers
• mineral fibers

For the paper industry, fibers originating from plants are the most important. In theory it is possible to make paper from all plant fibers, but in practice the industry -primarily for economic reasons- uses:

• seed fibers from the cotton plant
• bast fibers from the flax plant
• fibers from grasses (such as esparto) and cereals (such as straw)
• wood fibres from coniferous and deciduous trees
• fibers from old paper

Plant fibers have thread-like elements made up of elongated cells. They connect to each other through adhesion, which makes it possible to produce paper. Each cell forms a cell wall consisting of cellulose, hemicelluloses and lignin. Cellulose and hemicellulose fibers in particular are suitable for the manufacture of high-quality paper. The component lignin in paper is undesirable because it causes discoloration when exposed to light. The best example of this is a newspaper of a few days old.