Oh how I love a good field trip. Today was priceless. I packed up one of the kids and headed to NJ to tour the Marcal paper plant. Each day 600 tons of paper roll through the facility, get recycled and come out the other end as paper towels, tp and napkins. Pretty cool stuff.

It all started about three years ago when Marcal hit the financial skids. The company decided to reposition themselves as green. With a little help from state and federal governments, the plant is now a might green engine. 100% of the paper products from Marcal are made from recycled paper. Here's what I learned:

Step 1: Paper arrives by truck and is stacked at the facility.

Step 2: Paper is added to the 'slurry' machine. 

Water and paper are mixed at a high speed to create a pulpy mush.

Step 3: The pulpy mess is send to be cleaned. The ink from the old paper drops to the bottom of the vats (sorry no pictures). Staples, plastic bits and other unwanted materials are also filtered.

Step 4: The clean pulp is then heated on wire racks and pressed thin on the "parent"rolls.

Step 5: The parent rolls are sliced and diced into tp, paper towels and other paper items.

Step 6: The rolls are packaged and shipped out to consumers.

Momtrends was not paid for this post. I carpooled out to NJ on my own dime. 
Full disclosure--I did get a few rolls of tp after the tour.