The words of Greenpeace co-founder Dr Patrick Moore are a good point of departure: “We should be growing more trees and using more wood. If [those] land owners had no market for wood, they would clear the forest away and grow something else they could make money from instead. When you go into a lumber (wood) yard, you are given the impression that by buying wood you are causing the forest to be lost, when in fact what you are doing is sending a signal into the market to plant more trees.”

Given that in South Africa, paper is made from farmed trees, we can easily replace the word ‘wood’ above with paper.

Paper goes beyond common A4 printer paper from which the flawed antidote of “paperless” has emerged.

Paper includes packaging – from the boxes in which computer equipment is protected during shipment to the box that teabags come in; from your morning cereal, to the label on the coffee jar, to the bag of sugar and to the milk carton; from the tissue box to the bag and box that contained your takeaway lunch. It also includes books, magazines and newspapers. And then the important things like toilet paper, facial tissues, paper towel, feminine hygiene and diapers.

I won’t even go into the number of fibre-based, cellulosic innovations that are set to rival fossil-based materials.

Paper saves forests

South African paper products are produced from a renewable resource, in the form of:

• Wood pulp from trees farmed sustainably managed timber plantations (not from the wood of indigenous trees)
• Recycled paper fibre
• Bagasse (byproduct from sugar cane processing)

Just like most industries, paper manufacturing has an impact on the environment, but this is mitigated through the carbon sequestration by plantations, and the release of oxygen; the use of biomass-based renewable energy (derived from by-products of the papermaking process), emission reduction and water recycling initiatives, biodiversity conservation at plantation level as well as the promotion of paper recovery and recycling.

Carbon capture

In papermaking, the timber is chipped, pulped and paper is made and converted into countless products that we connect with all day, every day – in the kitchen and bathroom, at the office, at the supermarket and while travelling.

Through the papermaking process, carbon (from the CO2 absorbed by the trees) remains locked up and out of the atmosphere. And by recycling paper, we keep this carbon locked up. Destined for landfill – a compact, anaerobic environment – paper (mixed with other waste) will degrade and release gases such as methane which is 25 times more potent than CO2.

While there is no doubt that digital technologies offer security, integration, immediacy and convenience, using the mantra of “saving forests” to promote digital means needs to stop. Because it is simply untrue.

The post Using paper saves trees – a South African perspective first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Organisations like the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (RecyclePaperZA) are working towards a ‘recycling-minded’ society by teaching ordinary people how they can make an extraordinary difference – with everyday items.

“Separating paper and cardboard products from home, school and office waste and keeping it aside for conversion into other products has many benefits, both for the environment and the people who make a living by collecting recyclables and selling them on to buy-back centres and paper manufacturers,” says RecyclePaperZA operations director Ursula Henneberry.

RENEWABLE AND RECYCLABLE

The paper products we come into daily contact with – ranging from office paper and newspapers, medicine boxes and magazines, juice and milk cartons to cardboard cores from toilet rolls – can all be recycled.

They are also completely renewable because, at some point, their fibre would have come from sustainably and responsibly farmed trees that are planted, grown, harvested and replanted in cycles.

Recycling also keeps the carbon originally stored in the wood fibre of trees locked in paper products and out of the atmosphere for longer.

Unfortunately large quantities of paper still end up in landfills, which are rapidly running out of space, and add to greenhouse gas emissions when paper decomposes with other waste.

“During 2014, 64% of recoverable paper was recycled, 2% more than in 2013 and 5% more than in 2012,” says Henneberry. “For every tonne of paper recycled, up to three cubic metres of landfill space is saved – land that could be better used for housing, agriculture and infrastructure. During 2014, South Africans recycled 1.1 million tonnes, enough to fill 1,276 Olympic-sized swimming pools.”

But we need to do more. It is estimated that only 5% of households recycle paper.

RecyclePaperZA advises that householders keep recyclables aside for an informal collector who walks your neighbourhood every week. “This increases the quality of the recyclables, allowing the collector to earn a little more.”

TRASH IS TREASURE

“In a country with high unemployment rates and accompanying poverty, paper recycling is becoming a source of revenue for a growing number of people. An estimated 35,000 people put food on their tables by walking the streets to collect ‘waste’ in return for cash or work for larger companies to recover, sort and weigh recyclables for conversion into usable and commercially viable products.

The pulp and paper manufacturing industry is a key sector in the South African economy. Importantly, it employs a workforce of more than 150,000 people across the value chain – from forestry, to pulp and paper manufacturing to informal collectors. These people in turn collectively feed, clothe and school around 900,000 dependants.

“Companies that produce paper products run major mills specifically designed to turn today’s phonebooks, magazines, notepads, company minutes, milk cartons and cereal boxes into tomorrow’s egg containers, corrugated boxes and board, newspapers and tissue products,” states Henneberry.

“Some 65% of recovered paper is used as fibre, without which these mills would stand idle, unable to manufacture the pulp used to produce materials for products manufactured in South Africa and exported around the world.”

You can get involved by separating all kinds of refuse, starting with paper and moving on to plastics, glass and cans.

Paper products you can recycle:

• all office paper
• coloured paper
• newspaper, magazines (even glossy ones)
• catalogues, phonebooks
• direct marketing leaflets
• cardboard packaging of all kinds, shapes and sizes – boxes used for moving; electronics, shoes, gifts and cereal
• paper towel and toilet paper cores
• food packaging (unwaxed only please)
• shredded paper (in plastic bag to minimize blow-away)
• milk, juice and liquid cartons (should be empty)
• books: all soft cover, hard or plastic covers should be ripped off
• pizza boxes (food and wax paper removed)
• brown paper bags

Remember, paper should be separated from wet waste so it does not get contaminated.

Paper products you shouldn’t recycle

• Tissue paper and paper towel
• Wax paper
• Used cement and dog food bags
• Disposable nappies
• Plastic lined papers
• Foil lined papers

RECYCLING PROGRAMMES

• Visit mywaste.co.za for programmes in your area.
  • Enrol in a free kerbside collection programme.
  • Find a drop-off centre near your home or office, usually at local shopping centres.
• Check with local community centres, places of worship or schools if they have a paper recycling programme from which they benefit financially.
• Contract the services of a small recycling business.

Clean-up SA and Recycle Week takes place between September 14 and 18, and National Recycling Day is celebrated on Friday, September 18. International Coastal Clean-up Day takes place on Saturday, 19 September.

The post Discover the treasure in your trash first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

Breathe in, breathe out

• All paper in South Africa is produced from sustainably managed plantation-grown trees, recycled paper or bagasse (sugar cane fibre).
• Plantation-grown trees are farmed for paper, just as maize is planted for cereals and wheat for bread. In South Africa, 600 million trees across 762,000 hectares are specifically grown for use in pulp and paper manufacture and the industry plants in excess of 260,000 trees every single day.
• The fibre is not sourced from the wood of rainforests, indigenous or boreal trees. This is a myth, often wrongfully perpetuated by e-mail footnotes.
• Plantations are atmospheric carbon sinks which mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by absorbing carbon dioxide (CO₂) and releasing oxygen through the natural process of photosynthesis.
• Only 9% of the total plantation area is harvested annually. This is replanted within the same year. Only mature trees are harvested.
• Carbon absorption continues as the new trees grow and young trees are able to absorb carbon more rapidly than the older trees. These trees, and thus paper products, are a renewable resource.

Respecting our water resources

• South Africa’s plantations require neither irrigation nor regular fertilising.
• The total annual water usage by timber plantations was calculated to be 428 million m³ per year, approximately 3% of the total annual water usage in South Africa. By comparison, water used for irrigating crops amounts to 7,9 billion m3 or 62% of the total annual requirement. (National Water Resource Strategy: Dept. Water Affairs and Forestry 2004)
• The industry has also voluntarily reduced its plantation area by 80,000 hectares in riverine and other ecologically sensitive areas.
• Further downstream, pulp and paper manufacturers have implemented water recycling technologies to reduce the industry’s water footprint.

Managing our resources sustainably

• South Africa has the highest level of international certification of its plantations in the world. Over 80% of South African plantations are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC).
• PAMSA members subscribe to the FSC’s Chain of Custody which tracks FSC-certified material through the production process – from the forest to the consumer, including all successive stages of processing, transformation, manufacturing and distribution. Consumers should look out for paper and wood products bearing the FSC mark of certification.
• The industry has 1,6 million hectares of FSC-certified land of which only about one million hectares are planted to trees. The majority of the other 600,000 hectares are grasslands. These have been assessed by South African National Biodiversity Institute to be the best conserved grasslands in the country. It is therefore important when referring to impacts of monocultures on biodiversity, that they are considered at landscape level and not at stand level.

ENDS

The post Sustainable plantation management makes all the difference. first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).

In 2006, an initiative passed which required electric utilities to use renewable resources from facilities in operation after 1999. The initiative language also excluded certain renewable resources,such as spent pulping liquors. If we are going to move toward energy independence in the future, we must use common sense in counting renewable energy produced from organic material in facilities that are capable of producing it. This legislation helps preserve the economic viability of the pulp & paper industry in Southwestern Washington.

Mark Doumit said: “We need to do everything we can to use our renewable natural resources efficiently, and not pick winners and losers along the way. If we want healthy working forests we must ensure that our rural resource lands remain economically profitable.”Doumit is the Executive Director of the Washington Forest Protection Association, representing nearly 4 million acres of private forest landowners.

“We commend Governor Chris Gregoire, Senator Hatfield, and the Washington State legislature for recognizing the value that biomass has as part of the renewable energy portfolio,” said American Forest & Paper Association President and CEO Donna Harman.”Our industry is a leader in the use of renewable biomass fuel as part of our manufacturing processes which helps reduce greenhouse gases. We are pleased that our facilities will now be recognized as a contributor to renewable energy use in Washington.”

About the Washington Forest Protection Association. Founded in 1908, WFPA members are large and small private forest landowners that grow and harvest trees on nearly 4 million acres in Washington State. Forestry provides nearly 120,000 family wage jobs in the state. www.wfpa.org

About the American Forest & Paper Association. AF&PA is a Washington D.C.-based national trade association that represents the public policy interests of the nearly 900,000 U.S. forest products industry workers. www.afandpa.org

SOURCE: Washington Forest Protection Association

The post Washington forest products workers applaud bill that qualifies biomass as renewable energy first appeared on The Paper Story (PAMSA).