Method of removing high density stickies from secondary papermaking fibers

A method of thin stock processing of secondary fiber to remove contaminants comprising:

• (a) screening a first aqueous stream including secondary papermaking fibers having a consistency of less than about 2.5% in a screening device with openings having a screening dimension of less than about 10 mils to generate a screened accepts aqueous stream;
• (b) feeding said screened accepts aqueous stream to a multistage array of centrifugal cleaners configured to generate centrifugal cleaner accepts streams and centrifugal cleaner rejects stream which concentrate heavy streams and centrifugal cleaner rejects stream which concentrate heavy hydrophobic contaminants, the rejects stream of at least one cleaner being fed to another centrifugal cleaner;
• and
• (c) processing at least one centrifugal cleaner rejects stream of a centrifugal cleaner of said multistage array with a flotation stage to remove hydrophobic contaminants, said flotation stage thereby generating a flotation purified stream having a reduced hydrophobic contaminants content.