Papermaking = Environmentally Unfriendly? How Much Longer Will You Be Fooled!

When the paper industry is mentioned, do you get unpleasant associations, such as "white foam gushing, black water flowing everywhere, forests destroyed..."? "Papermaking = pollution" was people's traditional impression of the paper industry. But if you still think that way now, you are really out of date!

As the country has stepped up environmental protection and energy conservation and emissions reduction in recent years, the paper industry has adhered to the development concepts of green development and the circular economy, and through scientific and technological innovation and the application of advanced technologies and equipment, it has actively implemented cleaner production, vigorously tackled pollution at the source, in the production process and at the end of the pipe, and continuously improved papermaking processes and equipment levels. Pollution prevention and control in the paper industry has made tremendous progress, and it long ago shed the label of "major polluter."

At present, some indicators of the environmental standards implemented by China's paper industry are even stricter than those of European and American countries. Moreover, in recent years the technical and equipment levels of newly built and technologically upgraded pulp and paper enterprises have embodied high technological content; the cost, manufacturing difficulty and precision requirements of some large paper production lines are even higher than those of large passenger aircraft, and in particular their cleaner production and environmental treatment facilities have reached international advanced or even leading levels, promoting the coordinated development of the paper industry and ecological environmental protection.

From the perspective of raw materials, paper products commonly used in people's daily lives, such as printing and writing paper, copy paper, facial tissues and toilet paper, are mostly made from wood pulp. China has implemented a policy of fully halting commercial logging of natural forests. The wood used for papermaking pulp mainly comes from fast-growing forests such as eucalyptus and poplar planted domestically, as well as commercial wood chips imported from abroad, or commercial wood pulp imported directly.

In recent years, many paper enterprises have been actively promoting the "forest-pulp-paper integration" industrial model. The so-called "forest-pulp-paper integration" means integrating the three links of afforestation, pulping and papermaking in the paper industry chain, so that forests support paper and paper promotes forests, achieving self-sufficiency in raw materials, full-process control and a green cycle of forests, and realizing sustainable development.

So the paper industry has not only avoided destroying primary forests, but has also, through tree planting and afforestation, effectively absorbed and fixed carbon dioxide, contributing to the country's goal of achieving carbon neutrality.

Speaking of this, we cannot fail to mention the contribution of the industry leader! Let's see how APP (China) does it!

Sinar Mas Group APP (China) was the earliest paper enterprise in China to launch the "forest-pulp-paper integration" industrial model. Over the years, APP (China) has actively explored resource conservation and recycling models, continuously strengthened cleaner production management, and always adhered to the raw material philosophy of "plant six trees for every tree used," regarding afforestation as a core measure of the company's production process. At present, the group has planted about 270,000 hectares of plantation forests in 8 provinces and cities across China. APP China's cumulative forest carbon sequestration: 42,390,000 tonnes; APP China's net increase in forest carbon sequestration in 2020: 4,623,900 tonnes.

At the same time, on the production side, APP is building intelligent industrial bases through technological upgrading and cleaner production, promoting a development model of high efficiency and low energy consumption. To accelerate the green transformation of manufacturing, factories under APP (China) vigorously promote cleaner production, establish and improve management systems for energy, water resources, waste gas emissions and other areas, and continuously reduce the environmental footprint of their own operations. In 2020, APP (China)'s Jindong Paper and Ningbo Asia Pulp & Paper were named among the "fifth batch of national-level green factories," Guangxi Jingui Pulp & Paper's ivory board won the title of fifth batch national-level green design product, and Guangxi Jingui was also rated as a green factory of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

APP (China) regards digital transformation as a key future development strategy and is advancing "Industry 4.0" construction and smart manufacturing across the board. By applying high-tech such as blockchain and big data, it has achieved full-life-cycle digital information collection from raw materials to finished products to recycling, greatly improving its product quality control capability and operational management efficiency.

In 2021, APP (China)'s high-grade household paper industrial base in Rudong, Jiangsu, is about to go into production. The base integrates technology manufacturing with the circular economy, adopts world-leading technology, and fully implements the principles of cleaner production, showcasing a new look of green development with high efficiency and low consumption in the paper industry.

Papermaking is one of the four great inventions of ancient China and a great contribution made by the Chinese nation to the history of human cultural dissemination and the development of civilization.

Today, leading enterprises such as APP (China) are helping China move from a "country with an ancient papermaking tradition" to a "strong papermaking nation" through concrete action!

——This article is reprinted from China Packaging Network (pack.cn). Original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-377451.html