Customers often try to insist on exact sheet sizes or reel widths.
This is almost impossible to achieve as paper is a living material. Small changes in humidity can result in changes to the paper's moisture content. Then the paper may shrink or expand. Before paper can be recycled, unwanted materials such as pins, staples and paperclips have to be removed. On average, it takes 14 days for newsprint to leave the manufacturing mill, go to press, pass through the newsagent's hands, be bought and read, be taken to the recycling bin and then arrive back at the mill.