Two types of waste paper materials, newspaper and office paper, were evaluated for their potential to be used as renewable feedstock for the production of fermentable sugars via the enzymatic hydrolysis of their cellulose fractions. The effects of four factors (hydrolysis time, enzyme loading, surfactant addition and phosphoric acid pretreatment) on the extent of sugar yield were assessed and quantified by using a methodical approach based on response surface methodology. The statistical experimental design used in this study requires fewer experimental runs compared to some commonly used experimental designs. In the newspaper hydrolysis case, response surface plots revealed that the degree of sugar release increased with an increase in hydrolysis time but it was hardly affected by the enzyme loading and acid pretreatment factors. The surfactant addition factor exhibited a positive effect when the enzyme loading level was relatively low. With office paper as the substrate, three of the four factors (hydrolysis time, enzyme loading and acid pretreatment) exhibited positive effects on the extent of sugar release. At local optimum conditions, the maximum sugar yield from office paper was found to be 0.82 g of reducing sugars per gram of paper, which was about 4.8 times higher than the maximum sugar release from the newspaper substrate. (c) 2011 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.