There are two main sources of these recovered fibers:

Cotton ginning waste: Only the longest, highest-quality fibers are used to manufacture textiles. After ginning and combing to isolate and remove these textile fibers, a great deal of waste fiber remains, which is of inferior quality and has no value to the textile industry. Crane papers are made using linters – the tiny fibers that adhere to the cotton seed after ginning, and must be removed in order to efficiently extract valuable cottonseed oil. Linters are almost pure alpha cellulose, the stuff of which paper is made. Trees are only about half cellulose. Millions of pounds of linters are used each year to make Crane papers. Otherwise, they would end up in landfills

Textile cuttings: When garments are cut from cotton broadcloth, millions of pounds of trim waste are generated every year. Much of these trimmings are sent to landfills. As with linters, Crane has created infrastructures to collect these cotton garment trimmings for use in its papers. It is interesting to note that for centuries, cotton “rags” were the primary source of papermaking fiber. It wasn’t until the late 1860s that most paper companies began cutting trees as their raw material. Crane continues to adhere to its 200-year tradition of using recovered tree-free fibers for its fine 100 percent cotton papers. Not only are these fibers environmentally responsible, they make a paper of superior quality.