Sorted Office Paper Cardboard Bales

A sorted office paper bale is ISRI grade #37: paper as typically generated by offices, mostly white and colored groundwood-free paper, free of unbleached fiber. A small share of groundwood computer printout and fax paper is allowed.

It sits above mixed paper because the sorting has already been done: no corrugated, no brown kraft, no newspaper or magazine stock. It is not a white-only grade; sorted white ledger and similar grades exclude colored paper, #37 does not. Mills use it as deinking feedstock for tissue and printing and writing papers.

Contamination is judged strictly because the grade is defined by what was kept out. The common problems are cardboard, glossy stock, plastic sleeves, binders and moisture. Shredded paper is handled differently by many buyers, so confirm before it is baled in with #37.