According to the ninth annual Proforest* report on the Chain of Custody (CoC) commitment made in 2007 by Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) members – Tetra Pak, Elopak and SIG Combibloc – 100% of wood fibre purchased globally in 2015 was either FSC certified or FSC controlled wood.

This means ACE members have met their commitment to source 100% wood fibre that is traceable to fully third party verified legal and acceptable sources by the end of 2015 – and that all ACE members' food and drink carton production sites, and the board mills supplying these sites, are now Chain of Custody certified.

“When we set the target in 2007 we knew it was an ambitious one, so it is great news that the 100% target has been achieved and independently verified”, comments Richard Hands, Chief Executive of ACE UK. 

“Realising the target set in the original 2007 commitment, which had the support of the WWF European Policy Office, has helped achieve EU and international forest policy objectives to promote sustainable forestry practices, such as the EU’s action plan on Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT).”

Responsibly sourced raw materials have a key role to play in supporting a low carbon circular economy. In Sweden and Finland, where most of the wood fibre for European food and drink cartons originates, forests are expanding with growth in forest volume increasing year-on-year as annual growth exceeds cuttings.

“ACE members have a clear interest in ensuring that forests are responsibly managed as, on average, 75% of a food and beverage carton is made from this natural renewable material.

“Traceability is one of our industry’s key strategies in ensuring the responsible sourcing of primary raw materials, which is, in turn, critical to achieving sustainable economic growth. Achieving this target really is an important milestone for the food and drink carton industry”, concluded Hands.

The ninth annual Proforest report on ACE’s Chain of Custody (CoC) commitment can be found here:

http://www.ace-uk.co.uk/images/uploads/ace_9th_annual_report_2015_final.pdf

* Proforest is an independent verifier of natural resource management.

About the commitment

The commitment of ACE members is two-fold and global. First, the three beverage carton manufacturers, Tetra Pak, Elopak, SIG Combibloc undertake by 2015 to reach 100% wood fibre that is traceable to legal and acceptable sources, using processes that have been independently verified. The scope includes all wood fibres used in mills producing paperboard for the three companies. Second they commit to secure by 2018 chain of custody certification for all their carton manufacturing plants. Within the European Union, 100% of the wood used for the production of beverage cartons already comes from paper mills that have an FSC-certified Chain of Custody in place.

About ACE UK

The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment (ACE) UK provides a platform for the industry to profile and benchmark cartons as a renewable, recyclable and low-carbon packaging choice, and to drive its environmental initiatives. This includes running the industry’s carton recycling programme.

ACE UK represents Tetra Pak, Elopak, SIG Combibloc, the leading manufacturers of beverage cartons for the UK market. It is also supported by BillerudKorsnäs and Stora Enso, which produce about 98% of the paperboard used by ACE UK members to manufacture beverage cartons in Europe.

BillerudKorsnäs’ CEO Per Lindberg was awarded for best CEO in Large Cap Company in IR Nordic Markets Sweden 2016.

IR Nordic Markets is the biggest study of IR in the Nordic region and was carried out by Regi for the 19th year in a row. In the study, presented yesterday at IR Nordic Markets Awards Sweden 2016, assessments from analysts in the Nordic region and Europe formed the basis of the analysis of the financial communication of listed companies.

The category Best Swedish CEO Large Cap consisted of 46 companies and is calculated from the averages of three criterias: Trustworthiness, Public performance and Communication. Based on these criterias, financial analysts have ranked Per as the top performer.

BillerudKorsnäs provides packaging materials and solutions that challenge conventional packaging for a sustainable future. We are a world-leading provider of primary fibre based packaging materials and have customers in over 100 countries. The company has 7 production sites in Sweden, Finland and the UK and about 4 200 employees in over 13 countries. BillerudKorsnäs has an annual turnover of about SEK 22 billion and is listed on Nasdaq Stockholm. www.billerudkorsnas.com

Valmet has become one of the first technology suppliers to the global pulp and paper industry to adopt 3D printing technology in its manufacturing processes to shorten lead times.

"3D printing, also called additive manufacturing, is an excellent example of an emerging technology that has huge potential to be exploited widely in Valmet in the future. We have taken a big step towards offering next-generation products without being limited by yesterday's production processes," says Ari Saario, R&D Director at Valmet.

At its new 3D Competence Center, which was opened earlier this year in Sundsvall, Sweden, Valmet has to date successfully used this breakthrough technology to manufacture molding patterns and selected spare parts. The printing materials include aluminum, Inconel and type 316L steel. The center continuously runs trials with various printing materials and explores ideas for products that can be printed with a 3D printer.

Cutting lead times and time to market

The benefits of 3D printing for pulp and paper mills lie in shorter lead times when a new mold is needed for a customer-specific pattern.  It will also be possible to print parts on demand for rapid delivery.

For Valmet, adopting this new production method means cutting the time to market for new products. With this technology Valmet will be able produce patterns and parts regardless of shape, and tool requirements will no longer present any restrictions.

Information about 3D printing or additive manufacturing

The terms "3D printing" and "additive manufacturing" both refer to the same process: using digital 3D design data to build up a component by depositing material layer by layer.

Additive manufacturing is, in fact, a more accurate term, as it describes a professional production technique. Instead of milling a piece from a solid block, for example, components are built up layer by layer using materials that are available in fine powder form, such as a variety of metals, plastics and composite materials.

Valmet is the leading global developer and supplier of process technologies, automation and services for the pulp, paper and energy industries. We aim to become the global champion in serving our customers.

Valmet's strong technology offering includes pulp mills, tissue, board and paper production lines, as well as power plants for bioenergy production. Our advanced services and automation solutions improve the reliability and performance of our customers' processes and enhance the effective utilization of raw materials and energy.

Valmet's net sales in 2015 were approximately EUR 2.9 billion. Our 12,000 professionals around the world work close to our customers and are committed to moving our customers' performance forward - every day. Valmet's head office is in Espoo, Finland and its shares are listed on the Nasdaq Helsinki.

Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) has just announced the permanent closure of its Oklahoma City converting facility and permanent shutdown of two tissue machines at the company's Neenah, Wisconsin, tissue facility.

"As an integral step in our overall strategy to optimize our operations through better asset utilization, we will be taking these difficult but necessary actions while delivering on our growth objectives," said Pat Burke, group president for Clearwater Paper.

Clearwater Paper intends to run its Oklahoma City facility until its permanent closure on March 31, 2017. All of the facility's 131 employees will be impacted. The facility converts large parent rolls of tissue into packaged products.

"Because of significant productivity gains from our cost and optimization programs across the company, we expect Oklahoma City's production to be effectively absorbed and more efficiently supplied by other Clearwater Paper facilities," said Glenn Taylor, vice president of manufacturing for Clearwater Paper's consumer products division.

Also, as part of an overall facility optimization and restructuring plan, Clearwater Paper's Neenah location will permanently shut down two of the company's highest-cost tissue machines, affecting approximately 85 of the facility's approximate 400 employees and removing a total production capacity of 32,000 tons beginning December 31, 2016. Three remaining tissue machines will continue to manufacture an array of private label and away-from-home tissue products.

"Although a difficult decision when considering the impacted employees at Neenah, we expect the plant's restructuring to lower our overall costs and significantly strengthen the facility," said Taylor.

The company will work closely with state employment agencies to assist employees in receiving training, educational benefits and other benefits that enable them to find new employment as quickly as possible. The company will also provide private career assistance services to help employees through this difficult time.

The company expects the total impact of non-recurring exit related costs to be approximately $13 to $16 million, $4 to $6 million of which is expected to be incurred this year with the remainder in 2017. The cost savings benefits resulting from the facility consolidation and optimization are expected to be $10 million on an annual basis, with $7 to $9 million in 2017, which will contribute to the company meeting its previously announced operational improvement target.

"Clearwater Paper's employees remain our primary consideration and we are working to do as much as we can for those affected by utilizing all resources to help them through this difficult time," said Pat Burke. "We are working with local and state agencies to supply multiple job options to the employees."

ABOUT CLEARWATER PAPER

Clearwater Paper manufactures quality consumer tissue, away-from-home tissue, parent roll tissue, bleached paperboard and pulp at manufacturing facilities across the nation. The company is a premier supplier of private label tissue to major retailers and wholesale distributors, including grocery, drug, mass merchants and discount stores. In addition, the company produces bleached paperboard used by quality-conscious printers and packaging converters. Clearwater Paper's employees build shareholder value by developing strong customer partnerships through quality and service.

The chief executive of a Taiwan-invested paper project in Tien Giang has directly addressed allegations that his facility may pollute one of the most important waterways in the southern province and Mekong Delta.

Chiang Ming Jui, CEO of the Dai Duong Vietnam Co. Ltd., the developer of the namesake paper mill in Tien Giang’s Long Giang Industrial Park, rushed from Taiwan to Vietnam immediately following the negative comments directed at the company’s plan.

Dai Duong Vietnam Co., a subsidiary of Taiwan’s Chang Yang Holding, obtained the investment license for the US$220 million project in April.

Assoc. Prof. Le Trinh, head of the Institute for Environmental Science and Development, said in a petition earlier this month that the Dai Duong project should be stopped over fears that its wastewater will be discharged into the Tien River, affecting millions of households who depend on the waterway.

The 250-kilometer long Tien (Front) River and 200-kilometer Hau (Back) River are the two most important waterways in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta.

The Hau River is also under threat from another paper mill run by Hong Kong’s Lee & Man Paper.

CEO’s defense

In an interview with Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper, Chiang said he understands the concerns over pollution from Vietnamese authorities, scientists and the public, but asserted that the paper mill project in Tien Giang presents little ground for those fears.

The CEO said the company’s board of directors has insisted that no paper plant will ever be built by the company at the expense of the local environment, and the Dai Duong project will stick to that policy.

Chiang asserted that developer specifically chose the most modern wastewater treatment technology despite its cost in order to ensure adherence to environmental regulations.  He also acknowledged that it is the company’s responsibility to prove that their project will do no harm to the local surroundings and the Tien River.

According Assoc. Prof. Trinh’s petition, the paper making process requires a number of chemicals for production and wastewater from the process contains various hard-to-treat toxic materials.

Among those toxins are organic chlorides such as dioxin, which can be absorbed by fish and other aquatic animals before they are served at the dinner table.

While Chiang agreed that producing paper from pulp may cause pollution, he reassured that the Dai Duong plant only uses scrap paper as its raw material, rather than wood pulp and the sodium chloride used to bleach it.

The CEO pressed that the company is serious in its bid to meet all environment requirements from the Vietnamese government and is committed to staying pollution-free once the plant is commissioned.

Asked on which ground the company can be so sure they will not pollute the environment, Chiang said their wastewater treatment system is expected to cost $4 million in the first phase alone, enabling them to treat wastewater better than some other paper plants in the country.

Despite these reassurance and assertion, the developer has yet to have an environmental impact assessment approved by Vietnam’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources.

Chiang said the company is having a Ho Chi Minh City-based consultant prepare the environmental impact assessment and is expects to submit the results for approval later this year.

The CEO, acknowledging that Vietnam has grown more cautious toward approving new projects that may affect the environment in the wake of the Formosa scandal in central Vietnam, reiterated that the company’s view is to take business effectiveness and environmental protection equally serious.

The Dai Duong paper mill is expected to produce four types of paper, including the double-ply Duplex and Kraf paper from scraps, with a total capacity of 175,000 metric tons a year in its first phase.

The developer has leased as many as eight land plots, spanning a total of 227,530 square meters in the Long Giang Industrial Park, to build its plant.

The nation’s biggest printing company is funding a startup that makes paper out of rock, in a bid to diversify into new materials and as environmental concerns push companies to seek more sustainable products.

Toppan Printing Co., the nation’s largest by sales, will form an alliance with TBM Co. that could see posters, catalogs and stickers manufactured out of limestone, a plentiful material in otherwise resources-scarce Japan. Their ambition is to create a business with revenue of ¥50 billion ($444 million) by the end of the decade, according to a release from the two Tokyo-based companies.

Toppan will pay a royalty of up to ¥1.5 billion for access to TBM’s Limex technology and the partners will discuss license fees on future products, the companies said.

TBM, established in 2011 by 43 year-old entrepreneur Nobuyoshi Yamasaki, will benefit from tapping its partner’s personnel and facilities including paper printing and processing technology, Corporate Officer Taichi Yamaguchi said by phone.

For Toppan, which traces its origins to the turn of the last century, it’s an opportunity to get a toehold in upstream materials-making as it seeks to diversify from a business suffering from the digital revolution and dwindling demand for newspapers, magazines and books, according to Yoshiteru Itotani, senior general manager of Toppan’s business innovation promotion division.

“We will be innovating if we are able to manufacture upstream materials,” Itotani said by phone. “We empathize with their vision and President Yamasaki thinks of going global with this Japanese technology, while we are not very good at globalization.”

Itotani declined to comment on the possibility of Toppan taking equity in the smaller firm, but TBM’s Yamaguchi said his company wouldn’t rule it out. Toppan had sales of ¥1.5 trillion in the year ended March 31, while TBM has yet to create much revenue as commercial operations have just started.

Limex can substitute for paper and plastic. TBM says that by swapping stone for trees, the water equivalent to the annual needs of 220 million people could be saved if just 5 percent of the world’s paper were manufactured using the new material. It also says greenhouse gas emissions are about 20 percent less than traditional paper printing.

The process of turning stone into paper originated in Taiwan, according to TBM’s website. Yamasaki began importing the material to Japan in 2008. Having developed its own technology, TBM began commercial sales of Limex business cards in April and says more than 600 companies have purchased the product.

Limex business cards are combustible waste under government rules and there’s no environmental hazard in disposing of them, according to TBM Corporate Officer Takayuki Sasaki. The partners may set up a scheme to recycle any future products used by companies rather than individuals, he said.

Diversified business group Royal Golden Eagle (RGE) — founded by conglomerate Sukanto Tanoto — is on track to build the first integrated viscose fiber factory in Indonesia, which it claims will help meet domestic demand of viscose and drive exports.

The factory is expected to be completed in 2018 and will be operated by Sateri Viscose International (SVI), part of the RGE Group.

The raw materials will come from RGE’s other business unit, Asia Pacific Resources International (APRIL), which plants acacia and eucalyptus and processes the plants into pulp.

“[SVI] will be the first viscose fiber producer in Indonesia with an integrated production chain. There are a few other producers today, but their raw materials are imported,” SVI director Thomas Handoko said on Friday.

Ground breaking of the Rp 14.9 trillion (US$1.11 billion) factory took place earlier this year, next to APRIL’s pulp and paper mills in Pangkalan Kerinci, Riau province.

Also located there are APRIL’s and its suppliers’ combined one million hectares of concession land, 480,000 ha of which is home to pulp producing trees. APRIL produces 2.8 million tons of pulp per year.

Thomas claimed SVI would strengthen Indonesia’s position as the second largest viscose fiber producing country in the world and add to Indonesia’s foreign currency reserves by exporting 60 percent of its 350,000 tons of targeted annual production.

Its export value is estimated to reach $468 million per year.

RGE’s entrance into the viscose fiber business is expected to help the group maintain profit margins on the back of weak paper sales growth.

The fiber is largely used to produce rayon, raw materials for textile and other products, such as baby wipes, face masks, surgical gowns and medical pads.

The national demand for paper, meanwhile, is estimated to decelerate this year with 2 to 3 percent growth rate only, causing paper prices to drop to less than $700 per ton on average, according to the Indonesian Association of Pulp and Paper (APKI).

Indonesian Association of Synthetic Fiber Producers (APSFYI) secretary general Redma Gita said SVI’s presence would fill the viscose fiber shortage in the country.

At present, only two producers operate in Indonesia, Indo Bharat Rayon and South Pacific Viscose, with combined production at 500,000 tons per year, 150,000 tons of which are exported. The national demand itself stands at 500,000 tons.

“Viscose fiber is a capital intensive industry, and it needs strict waste control; that’s why there are only a few producers here,” Redma said.

“I think SVI benefits from its Chinese partner Sateri [also part of the group], which has been a long-time player in China. [Sateri] already has experience in high technology production and waste control systems,” he added.

There is only a small number of viscose fiber producing countries at the moment and Indonesia currently sits in the third position after China and India, Redma said.

The US, Europe and Japan reportedly cut their viscose fiber industries recently due to a series of factors, including costs and environmental issues.

This has opened an opportunity for several Asian countries to tap into the market. Various statistics put global viscose fiber output at more than 4.9 million tons in 2013 and China contributed to over 65 percent of the figure

Simply Waste Solutions has announced it will now collect and supply used cups to the UK’s only food and drink carton recycling plant.

ACE UK has assessed the capability of this technology to process paper drinking cups and, through its partnership with the plant operator Sonoco Alcore, will be able to recycle cups, alongside cartons, into new paper products.

Simply Waste, the logistics arm of the Simply Cups paper cup recycling scheme, has been in discussions with ACE UK since 2014 to understand how to ensure cup material can meet all the plant’s infeed quality standards, by eliminating contaminants before the used material reaches the facility.

“The process has not been easy, and challenges have needed to be overcome, but with advice from ACE UK we have developed a formula where we can now supply consistently high-quality, uncontaminated bulk-loads of used paper cups for reprocessing; a standard that no other waste management company has yet achieved on a consistent basis.”

Simply Waste Solutions is the only current supplier of used cups to the plant and offers the Simply Cups scheme access to this reprocessor as one of a number of recycling options.

James Capel, Simply Waste’s CEO and Founder, commented: “This arrangement is the culmination of an initial discussion with ACE UK over two years ago. The process has not been easy, and challenges have needed to be overcome, but with advice from ACE UK we have developed a formula where we can now supply consistently high-quality, uncontaminated bulk-loads of used paper cups for reprocessing; a standard that no other waste management company has yet achieved on a consistent basis.

“Although every cup we’ve ever collected has been recycled into new products, the new processes that have been put into place, and the new opportunity to recycle at the ACE UK facility, will give added assurance to the growing number of Simply Cups’ members that the quality of their used cups now reaches the highest possible standards which will only make the recycling process more efficient.”

ACE UK’s dedicated carton recycling facility was opened in 2013 and was a major milestone in the organisation’s drive to increase food and drink carton recycling across the UK. The plant is capable of recycling up to 40% of the cartons manufactured each year for the UK food and drink market and processes cartons collected through the industry’s own bring bank system, or from the 64 per cent of UK local authorities which collect cartons for recycling at kerbside.

Mandy Kelly, ACE UK’s Senior Recycling Manager, commented: “Our facility was designed to recycle food and drink cartons. As such paper cups can only be recycled as a limited percentage of the overall processing capacity and cartons will always take precedence.

“In order to accept cups into the process we have had to set rigorous standards. Simply Waste has worked hard to hone its own processes to meet our rigorous requirements and quality standards, to successfully make cup recycling a reality at our facility.”

A South Korean research team has developed a technology that can apply paper just like a silicon (Si) board. The new development is expected not only to lower the price, but also to significantly reduce negative environmental impacts arising from production and destruction of electronic circuits.

Led by Professor Cho Yong-hoon of Department of Physics at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), the research team announced on Thursday that it has developed a technology that can combine nanometers of micro semiconductor elements on a paper.

Until now, electronic circuits were mostly compressed on boards manufactured in silicon. To compose a circuit, chemical process is required to melt the surface, thus leading to environmental issues during the manufacturing process. Moreover, the researchers also consider the environmental impacts when discarding obsolete electronic circuit chips.

The team was the first to operate a 500nm-wide micro optical component on a paper. Optical components are light-detecting elements, and were considered inactive when placed on a paper with a rough surface due to scattered lights. However, Professor Cho and his team members discovered from the experiments that when the fiber thread (or cellulose) on the surface of a paper is smaller than the optical component, the cellulose can still show high performances.

“Increasingly higher demands for electronics shortened their replacement period, and are currently producing massive amounts of obsolete electronic circuits,” Professor Cho said. “The recent development to combine cheap paper with high-functional optical components is both eco-friendly and inexpensive.”

The recent findings were published on “Advanced Materials,” an international journal on material science.

Cost effective approach could save mills up to $150,000 in chemical costs 

FPInnovations, in partnership with FITNIR Analyzers Inc., announced the successful commercialization of an innovative new product using near infrared technology (NIR) to quickly and efficiently analyze the kappa number of kraft pulp. The unique approach determines kappa number in less than four minutes and eliminates the need for all associated chemicals. The kappa analyzer also does not rely on other parameters for measurement (such as sample weight) thereby reducing measurement error. 

While NIR technology has been used in many industries with applications from pharmaceutics to food quality control, FPInnovations developed specialized expertise to apply this technology to the pulp and paper industry. Solving practical problems encountered in mills, NIR can now be used to measure kappa number, while eliminating many of the complex factors traditionally faced in the process. Easy and quick kappa number measurement allows mills to monitor and control pulp production, from the beginning of the process to the final product. Quicker adjustments improve mill efficiency, while reductions in chemical consumption lead to significant cost savings.

FITNIR Kappa is the third of three commercial products offered by FITNIR based on the same NIR technology being used in mills across North America, Indonesia and Scandinavia. The other two products, FITNIR Online and FITNIR Benchtop, also developed in conjunction with FPInnovations, provide fast, accurate and true measurements of a complete suite of key pulp liquor properties for recovery, recaust, digester, and chlorine dioxide generator applications.

NIR technology uses a broad spectrum of infrared light to illuminate a pulp sample. The resulting unique spectral frequencies are then recorded by the spectrometer and computer. A proprietary algorithm, developed by FPInnovations’ researchers and further fine-tuned by FITNIR, analyzes and determines the lignin content of the sample to ascertain the kappa number.

Quotes

“This is a great example of how research and development leads to innovation and commercially viable products that benefit industry,” stated Pierre Lapointe, President and CEO of FPInnovations. “The partnering of former FPInnovations researcher Thanh Trung, now FITNIR’s VP of Technology, facilitated the commercialization of this technology and is a demonstration of the innovation ecosystem at its best. Industry and governments should expect more of the same as we implement our five-year strategic action plan.” 

“We pride ourselves on listening to the needs of the market and responding appropriately,” said FITNIR Analyzers’ President, Tom Sands. “Mills were wanting another means for reducing variability and standardizing kappa measurements across sites and now we are able to offer FITNIR Kappa. The growth of our NIR product suite and applications is satisfying as we continue to contribute to the strength of the pulp and paper industry.”

Associated Links

• FPInnovations: www.fpinnovations.ca
• FITNIR Kappa: fitnir.com/products-services/kappa/

About FPInnovations

FPInnovations is a not-for-profit world-leader that specializes in the creation of scientific solutions in support of the Canadian forest sector’s global competitiveness and responds to the priority needs of its industry members and government partners. It is ideally positioned to perform research, innovate, and deliver state-of-the-art solutions for every area of the sector’s value chain, from forest operations to consumer and industrial products. FPInnovations’ staff numbers more than 525. Its R&D laboratories are located in Québec City, Montréal, and Vancouver, and it has technology transfer offices across Canada. For more information about FPInnovations, visit: www.fpinnovations.ca. 

About FITNIR Analyzers Inc.

FITNIR’s automated online and benchtop analyzers reliably measure complete pulp liquor compositions. Fast, frequent and accurate measurements drive control strategies that decrease process variability and environmental impact for improved efficiencies and profitability. Proven applications for the digester, recausticizer, recovery boiler, ClO2 generator, brownstock washer, and now kappa measurements for wet and dry pulp, FITNIR is the next generation of process analyzers. Visit www.fitnir.com.