binder fibers commercially available in the united states from itochu corp 335 madison avenue new york n y 10017 in mitsui 9400 fybrel u2122 polyethylene pulp the polyethylene fibers have an average length of 0 90 mm and a diameter of 15 microns kuraray 105 2 pva binder fibers have an average length of 5 mm and a denier of 2 0 in accordance with a second example of a polyethylene based synthetic paper the starting fiber material may be 100 wt mitsui 9400 fybrel u2122 polyethylene pulp that is pva binder fibers are not essential to practice of the invention in this embodiment the polyethylene pulp is entangled during the wet lay process to form the base sheet optionally the base sheet may thereafter be coated with the pigmented binder u2014 avoiding thermal fusion of the polyethylene pulp u2014 to produce a high opacity synthetic paper having excellent printability alternatively in accordance with a variation of the polyethylene based synthetic paper some of the kuraray 105 2 pva binder fibers are replaced by 10 mm u00d7 2 2 denier hercules herculon u2122 polypropylene staple fibers these polypropylene staple fibers are commercially available in the united states from hercules inc 3169 holcomb bridge.