Plain paper pulped and bagged by worker (8)
I believe the answer is:
apparent
'plain' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'paper pulped and bagged by worker' is the wordplay.
'pulped' indicates an anagram (the original order of letters is crushed or pulped).
'and' becomes 'n' (common abbreviation for 'and').
'bagged by' indicates putting letters inside.
'worker' becomes 'at' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'paper' with letters rearranged gives 'ppare'.
'ppare'+'n'='pparen'
'pparen' inserted inside 'at' is 'APPARENT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for apparent that I've seen before include "cut , book written on a page" , "Evident, manifest" , "Writ large" , "Pane part may be quite obvious" , "Obvious, clearly understood" .)