Confederation of Paper Industries

Papermaking Process

Paper plays a key role in our daily lives, but how is it made?

Although the basic processes of papermaking have remained unchanged for centuries, paper, once made by hand in individual sheets, is now made on enormous papermaking machines, four times the length of a cricket pitch.

In one week, a single machine can produce enough paper to stretch from London to New York! Some paper is still made by hand and the skills of papermaking have been handed down from generation to generation.

How is paper made?

Follow the papermaking journey

This diagram details the papermaking process and illustrates the extensive use of recovered paper. New pulp, however, is an integral part of the papermaking process: recovered paper cannot be recycled indefinitely because the fibres lose their papermaking qualities.

Click on the labels to find out more about each stage of the papermaking process.