Re: How to make your own tissue paper from recycle paper

Hi Samson. Thanks for the question. In order to make your own tissue, you will have to do several things. Making tissue is not very much different than making regular paper. I found a good technique for making homemade paper at Pioneer Thinking's making paper. I will refer to their steps when I describe how to make the tissue paper in which you are interested.

Typically, when someone in the paper industry talks about tissue, they are speaking of tissue-towel type paper that is used as tissues, toilet paper, and paper towels. Another kind of tissue paper is the type used to pack things to keep them from breaking or to improve the presentation of a gift.

Making the packing type tissue paper is very easy – it is just thin paper. To make it, just follow the directions at the pioneerthinking.com web site above. The only difference is you will either use less fiber or more water in the basin. You can use different types of construction paper to add color or you could try to dye the fibers with food coloring if you want.

Now, for the soft kind of tissue paper. There are two main differences between regular paper and tissue. First, regular paper is treated with sizing materials to make the paper water proof. I discussed this in a previous answer for If paper towels absorb water, why doesn't regular paper? The second difference is that regular paper is pressed so that it is smooth and better to write on. The tissue paper is not pressed so that it remains bulky (low density) and consequently will seem soft.

Having discussed the differences between tissue and regular paper, now we can think about how to alter the recipe given at the web site above to make tissue instead regular paper. As for the furnish (fiber source) a bleached type of paper would be best. Try to avoid brown paper bags and newspaper. Also avoid magazine paper since it has ink and coating that will introduce contaminants to the system. I think copy paper would probably be the best (construction paper and napkins would be good, or a combination of all of them). Keep in mind that recycled paper makes lower quality tissue than virgin fiber so don’t get your hopes up because you will probably not have a nice soft tissue when you are finished.

Follow the steps #1-#4 on the pioneerthinking.com website and skip step #5. Now follow the rest of the steps for making the paper. Be careful to press very lightly with the sponge while removing the water (another method would be to use a Wet-Dry vacuum to vacuum the water from the paper). You don’t want to press the paper too much so it will remain as soft as possible. You can adjust the amount of fiber in the basin to change the thickness of the piece of tissue you make.

Give this a try. Please don’t get your hopes up with making your own tissue – it is really difficult to make it well.