The object of this study was to determine what effect does recycling paper have on the tensile energy absorption (TEA) of that paper. The TEA of the sheet was split into two components, the elastic and the plastic. The sum of the two components gives the composite TEA.
The TEA\u27s were measured at three different numbers of extension-cycles. It was found that a greater number of extension cycles resulted in greater TEA\u27s for both elastic and plastic regions.
It was discovered that elastic TEA does not decrease with the first or second degree of recycling. Plastic TEA suffers its greatest losses after the first and second recycles.
Further work is needed to investigate which fiber properties are responsible for certain losses in TEA. There is also need to study the effects of ink removing chemicals, and dynamic sheet formers, on the physical characteristics of recycled paper
