A process of making a paper or nonwoven article is provide. The process comprising: a) providing a fiber furnish comprising a plurality of fibers and a plurality of binder microfibers, wherein the binder microfibers comprise a water non-dispersible, synthetic polymer; wherein the binder microfibers have a length of less than 25 millimeters and a fineness of less than 0.5 d/f; and wherein the binder microfibers have a melting temperature that is less than the melting temperature of the fibers; b) routing the fiber furnish to a wet-laid nonwoven process to produce at least one wet-laid nonwoven web layer; c) removing water from the wet-laid nonwoven web layer; and d) thermally bonding the wet-laid nonwoven web layer after step (c); wherein the thermal bonding is conducted at a temperature such that the surfaces of the binder microfibers at least partially melt without causing the fibers to melt thereby bonding the binder microfibers to the fibers to produce the paper or nonwoven article.