The recycling of paper and paperboard waste to obtain cellulose powder has a positive impact on environment and has economic benefits. Cellulose powder from recycled materials can be applied in various fields of industry, including the fabrication of wood-polymer composites [1, 2]. The extraction of cellulose from cellulose-containing waste can be carried out by mechanical disintegration and acid or alkali hydrolysis. In comparison to a known method [3], the proposed method can be uses gentler conditions. In this study, recycled de-inked waste paper was cut into small pieces (d < 5 mm). The paper pieces were soaked in 0.05 % HCl solution for 2 h under intensive mechanical stirring to insure disintegration. Hydromodulus was 1/20 (paper/water). The excess water after soaking was removed by pressing. Then the disintegrated paper mass was dried (first, at 60 °C for 16 h, followed by drying at 120 °C for 2 h). After drying, the paper mass was milled in a planetary mill for 15 min at a moderate rotation speed. The physicochemical properties of obtained cellulose particles were characterized. The obtained recycled paper particles (RPAP) had a similar contact angles with water compared to reference cellulose powder. However, the polarity of RPAP was 20.5 %, but that of reference cellulose – 43.5 %. RPAP is more amorphous than cellulose because its crystallinity index was 61 % but crystallinity index of reference cellulose powder was 81 %. Using laser particle sizing, it was found that 99% of particles were less than 200 μm in size, and 90 % of particles were less than 140 μm in size.