Tissue Papers in Turkey and Some Physical and Optical Properties

Anahtar Kelimeler Tissue Papers, Toilet Paper, Napkin, Paper Towel, Physical and Optical Properties Abstract: The objective of study was to determine some properties of tissue papers and identify the position in Turkey. Napkins, toilet papers and paper towels used in this study were supplied from 5 different companies. Physical and optical properties of these papers were investigated and compared them to each other. Grammage, moisture content, crepe, bulk, density, tensile strength, thickness, water retention value and water absorption time were determined as physical properties and brightness and whiteness values were measured as optical properties. According to obtained results, the best results in physical and optical properties of napkins, toilet papers and paper towels belong to C, E and A Company, respectively.


Introduction
Tissue paper is generally defined as low weight (14-40 gr m-2) and crepe paper.The main product groups constitute tissue paper; It is thinking that first toilet paper was produced in the 14th century.The first factory production was launched by Joseph Cattey in the United States in 1857.
The first wrapped roll phase of toilet paper was made in 1880.After World War II, it has been used in a wide range.First entry into the market of toilet paper in turkey was in the 1970s [1].
World production of toilet paper per year is approximately 35 billion rolls.Given an average population of 6 billion people in the world, the world average is around 6 rolls per person.According to these data; Turkey remains below the world average annual consumption with 4 rolls per person.40% recycled fiber (RCF), 45% chemical pulp, 1% mechanical pulp and 2% other materials were used for tissue paper production in the world.Turkey has 48 paper mills and tissue paper production was 461.936 tons.The production of tissue paper is a rapidly evolving field in Turkey.Reason of this, import of cellulose as a raw material for paper production draws attention to facilitate.Interest in tissue paper production was increased due to reduced costs.A great competition has begun in this field.Be over 90 the number of companies that produce waste paper press in Turkey is a figure showing the said competition [2].
this present study, toilet papers, napkins and paper towels supplied five different companies in Turkey were used to determine physical and optical properties and to identify position in Turkey.

Export and import of tissue papers in the world
Export of tissue paper in the world was 22.1 billion dollars in 2009.It decreased to 14.5 billion dollars in 2013 (Figure 1a).Germany took the largest share of world exports in the tissue papers with 1.7 billion dollars in 2013.China and Italy follow Germany with 1.5 and 1.3 billion dollars, respectively Turkey takes the 12th place with 753.82 million dollars [3].

Export and import of tissue papers in the world
When looked at the last five years improvement, apart from the economic crisis in 2009, Turkey's tissue paper export shows a constant increase.Turkey's tissue paper exports in 2009-2013 were 523.

Material
This study was conducted at Kahramanmaras Sutcu Imam University Faculty of Forestry, Pulp and Paper Production Laboratory.Tissue papers supplied five different companies used for this study were toilet papers, napkins and paper towels.Physical and optical tests of papers were made according to the standard methods.

Some Physical and Optical Properties of Tissue Papers
Physical and optical properties of tissue papers were determined according to standards given in Table 1.
Table 1.Applied tests on tissue paper and standards [5,6] Tests Grammage, moisture content, crepe, bulk, density, tensile strength, thickness, water retention value and water absorption time are calculated as physical properties.Brightness and whiteness values were measured as optical properties.After applied these tests, physical and optical properties of companies' products were compared them to each other.

Some Physical and Optical Properties of Tissue Papers
Physical and optical properties of tissue papers obtained from five different companies were given in  Important physical properties of papers were water retention value (WRV), crepe and water absorption time (WAT).Because of usage areas, tissue papers must be resistant to water.
WRV is defined as the ratio of the mass (weight) of water retained after centrifugation under specified conditions by a wet pulp sample to the oven dry mass (weight) of the same pulp sample.WRV test provides an indication of fibers' ability to take up water and swell.
The quality of the creped sheet is, in part, a function of the adhesion/release properties of the sheet, which are determined largely by the dryer surface coating [7].
In European and international trade, both waterabsorption time and water-absorption capacity represent important parameters in the field of comparison of tissue products [8].
According to Table 2, the best result in water absorption time, water retention value, crepe and tensile strength of napkins were found as 4 seconds (C Company), 8.93 g/g (C Company), 11.3% (A Company) and 164 N.m/g (MD) (A Company).
In Table 3, some physical and optical properties of paper towels were given.B Company has the best WAT and WRV as 5.3 s and 7.9 g/g.The best result in tensile strength was found as 164 N.m/g (A Company).A and D companies have better crepe as 11.2%.*ND: Non Defined Some properties of toilet papers were determined in Table 4. Table 4 indicates that E company toilet papers have the best WAT (4 s) and whiteness (67.7).
Companies with the best physical and optical properties of tissue papers were given Table 5.
According to Turkey, being the biggest 12th tissue paper exporter, by rapidly solving the issues in this sector will reveal its great power and maybe enable our country to be world's biggest tissue paper exporter.
There are some attempts for solving this sector's problems when approached respectively; Two different ways may avail to get over the sector's excess capacity problem.Both promotional activities must be increased to develop domestic marketing, and sector's export must be increased with new markets by increasing overseas markets.Any kind of activity for extending the usage of new markets, created both domestic and foreign, will greatly contribute to the sector's development.
For overcoming the problems in unfair competition, consumers' awareness must be heightened.It will be helpful to enable the consumers' preferences not according to rack rate but to quality.
Production cost of the sector will decrease if the sector is encouraged in raw material and energy supply.
Also, when ever-increasing tissue paper production and developments in sector are taken into account, promising with its wide product range, tissue paper sector, clearly carries a great importance in human health and hygiene.With these reasons in order to increase personal cleaning and hygiene awareness, to be the pioneer of modern, qualified and healthy life various activities must be carried out to inform the public, aiming to extend the usage of tissue paper.
When the advantage of Turkey's strategic position is taken into account the target's reality clearly reveals.Turkey exports to more than 170 countries in different continents; Europe at first then Middle East and Turkic Republics.
weight, tissue papers are produced several layers.New technological developments in paper production have led to add new products as wet wipes, wet toilet papers.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Export (a) and Import (b) of tissue paper in the world Figure 1b shows that there was a high decrease after 2011 in import between the years 2009-2013.The import of tissue papers in the world, USA takes the first place in import with 1.5 billion dollars.Germany and Canada follow it with 1.38 and 0.88 billion dollars.Turkey takes the 21th place with 98 million dollars.Turkey does just the %0.63 of the import [3].
Turkey, showing a wavy trend within its last 5 years in tissue paper import, has an 86.5 million dollars import in 2009 and 115 million dollars in 2013.Turkey's the highest import is to Poland with 31.7 million dollars.Germany and Hungary follow Poland with 17.6 and 14 million dollars, respectively [2, 4].

Tissue
Papers in Turkey and Some Physical and Optical Properties

Table 2 .
Some physical and optical properties of Napkins

Table 3 .
Some physical and optical properties of Paper Towels

Table 4 .
Some physical and optical properties of Toilet Papers

Table 5 .
The best results in physical and optical properties of companies' tissue papers