Today we had a special visitor, Murray Sim, who told us all about paper production and what was involved. Murray worked as an industrial chemist at the Kawerau paper mill in the late 80s. It was amazing to learn how different types of paper were made. We didn't really know about all the nasty chemicals used to bleach and clean the wood pulp to make special kinds of paper. Did you know that shiny thick glossy paper like in the real estate magazines has latex in it?
Murray showed us how different types of paper burn and what was left afterwards. Newsprint burns almost completely but the thick glossy paper smelled like plastic and quite a lot of it was left after burning. What was left was the latex.
This afternoon we are making a brainstorm about the environmental issues involved in paper making. It really isn't a clean and environmentally friendly process at all. This has made us really think about how much paper we use.
Thank you Murray for giving up your time to talk to us!
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