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Recycled paper is an important raw material to provide sustainability of natural resources and reduce the environmental impact of the use of paper from recycled pulp in the packaging industry. Hence, recycled paper production is higher in terms of volume and utilization. Recycled paper products are used in the packaging industry partially or fully. Such usage leads to the presence of heavy metals due to recycled and chemical additive sources. The present study aims at determining the amounts and also identifying the sources of heavy metals such as Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cu contained in recycled testliner (TL) and fluting (FLT), which are main products used in production of corrugated cardboard. The metals in the structure of the paper used in packages directly or indirectly in contact with foods are heavy metals. Mean values of 2.6 mg kg -1 Pb (lead), 2.8 mg kg -1 Zn (zinc), 0.094 mg kg -1 Cd (cadmium), 1.8 mg kg -1 Ni (nickel), and 25.4 mg kg -1 Cu (copper) were detected in test liner and fluting papers using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The main sources of heavy metals are colorants, mainly consisting of conventional paint and pigments as well as spot and Pantone Matching System (PMS) colorants.

Obtaining cellulose from recyclable waste paper contributes to the sustainability of forest resources, water and energy savings, and the reduction of environmental pollution. However, waste paper collected under inappropriate conditions for recycling can be degraded in a short time, thus becoming economically useless. This study examined the factors affecting source-separated collection processes of waste paper in Istanbul hotels, as well as the correlation among these factors. The economic value of the assumed benefits of source-separated waste paper was also calculated. To achieve these objectives, various inputs and methods were used, including the percent tabulation technique and the chi-square independence test. As a result, it was determined that 70% of managers and employees of Istanbul hotels were sensitive to recycling waste paper, but they were not aware of the entire benefits of waste paper recycling. It was also determined that because of waste paper recycling, 18 thousand trees, 5 million kWh of electricity, 3 thousand tons of water, and 1.3 thousand tons of fuel oil were saved, and the generation of 27 thousand tons of CO2 was prevented annually. Hotels in Istanbul provide the economy with an annual average of 752 tons of waste paper, which corresponds to 78% of the foreign trade deficit of Turkey’s paper and paper products sector in the last five years.

This study was aimed to examine the effects of basic properties, fiber morphological properties, strength properties, wettability and optical properties on offset printing of office papers. Widely used office papers with different brands were obtained from Istanbul-Turkey. Technical characteristics of papers; basic properties, strength properties including tensile, burst, tear, and Z direction tensile strength and optical properties such as gloss, whiteness, opacity, and wettability tests were determined according to TAPPI and ISO standards. The results obtained by the tests are as follows; i) there is a great difference in water resistance between the top and the lowest values (207 %), ii) there is little difference between the highest and the lowest brightness value (3.8 %), other papers values have close to each other, iii) in the printing process there is a little difference between the highest, and the lowest gloss values (36.7 %), although the others are close iv) the highest and lowest values in CIE C* showed that it ranged from the narrowest color gamut to the widest color gamut. By applying the widely used offset printing process to commercially produced office papers, the quality levels were evaluated to raise awareness of consumers and sellers.