Learning about paper industry sustainability on a cold wet mountainside

By Mark Rushton, Editor, Pulp & Paper International Magazine, RISI

LONDON, May 15, 2009 (RISI) - I have just recently returned from a trip to UPM's Shotton newsprint mill on the border between England and Wales in the UK, finishing up with a forest tour of land that UPM also owns on a Welsh mountain side - and despite the wind rain and cold (and that's in midsummer!) I have returned brimming with enthusiasm for this industry.

The mill

Shotton is one of the newsprint industry's showcase mills, devouring 640,000 tonnes/yr of recovered paper, and churning out some 500,000 tonnes/yr of newsprint. The mill part of my trip was chiefly concerned with the emphasis on recyclability of paper and of how quality of recovered paper is of utmost importance if a quality result is going to be obtained at the other end (see the full mill report in PPI July in print or online).

Mike Burgess, one of the mill's six dedicated sourcing managers, said on the mill tour: "The big three issues when talking about recovered paper are quality, quality and more quality, in that order. We generally have to reject around 10,000 tonnes/yr of recovered paper due to quality issues, which is not good for either the supplier, or us, and it costs us in the region of £2 million (US $3 million) because of the disruption, hold ups and extra time and logistics taken to remove the unwanted material."

So, imagine being responsible for having to source 640,000 tonnes of recovered paper every year - sounds like the stuff of sleepless lights and early grey hair. Burgess reveals: "Well it could be stressful, but that is why we have a dedicated team of six, and a very sophisticated procurement system with over 500 local area authorities which are mostly signed up to long term contracts with us. The only problems we do have are related to holiday periods or long Bank holidays, for instance Easter, where we don't get deliveries for a few days. But we have never run out, I wouldn't be here if we did!"

Sustainability - a sum of two parts

UPM also owns Coed Llandegla, a 650 ha working forest around 15 miles from the Shotton mill, which as well as supplying a variety of biomass products for Shotton's boiler, it also doubles as one of Wales' largest leisure parks, with over 50 kms of mountain biking and walking trails.

At a presentation in the visitor center in the forest, John Sanderson, globally responsible for getting UPM's message on sustainability across to the public, talked about the more serious aspects of recycling, and the NGOs increasing pressure to increase consumption even further. He says "We have done some of our own calculations, and we reckon that if we stopped making paper from virgin paper right now on a global scale, there would be no paper left in six months from now. Virgin fiber is essential to the process. We all want 100% sustainability, and the only way to achieve it is to use both recovered and virgin fiber in equal measure."

Sanderson may have been preaching to the converted on my visit, but the former environmentalist had some interesting calculations on perceived carbon footprints of paper. He said: "The largest part of the carbon footprint comes from the energy used in the separating of the fibers, either from recovered paper or virgin raw material. The only process that can be termed "carbon neutral" or even "carbon positive" is the chemical pulping process due to the ability to extract energy from the separated lignin. Mechanical pulping is by far the most energy demanding pulping method. Transportation hardly enters the equation at all, the most important area is energy in production, so shipping paper to the other side of the world could be much more environmentally friendly than from buying it from a mill up the road that is using a coal fired boiler."

Wind, rain and cold - the order of the day

The forest management team at Coed Llandegla is headed up by Simon Jon Miller who is the forest manager for UPM. As well as supplying biomass products to Shotton, the forest also sells high quality Sitka spruce for construction and fence posts. On the day of our visit, wind, rain and cold were the order of the day, but the local conditions did nothing to dampen Miller's enthusiasm for his occupation of creating a sustainable, working forest, complete with a profitable leisure facility that has people from all over the country crashing through the forest on mountain bike trails. He told us trembling visitors as he marched us through the tempestuous conditions up hills and down vales: "Here we have the perfect example of how a forest can not only be ecologically sustainable, but can also be economically sustainable and provide a much needed recreation ground for over half the UK population who live within a 70 mile radius."

This visit clearly and concisely reiterates the general pulp and paper industry vision that sustainability doesn't just mean recycling. Sanderson finished by saying: "What we are witnessing in these times is "Ecoflation", and most companies cannot ignore the fact that global warming is upon us. But we must get away from the single issues, such as those of simply trying to increase recycling, we must aim a more linked together approach, where sustainable forest management is just as important as recycling."

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