Paper Product and the Environmental Impact - Essay Example

Environmental sustainability: Paper product and the environmental impact affiliation Introduction Today, the paper industry continues being under the environmental siege due to the public fear of deforestation. Consequently, several environmental groups and activists are continuously demanding for a decrease in the consumption of paper. With the increasing demand for the use of paper, it requires new corporate planning dimensions by the paper industries. Both the environmentalists and the paper industries need to come up with a workable solution. The consumption of paper is increasing at an alarming rate. Since the year 950, the consumption of paper has risen to five times. Due to globalization, the demand for newsprint is increasing with more and more books and magazines selling in the streets. Modernization seems to be changing the use of paper, today more currents seem to be using paper for sanitary products, packaging and office paper among other uses. Unfortunately, most of this paper goes as a waste. A study by Foghmontensen et al. (2001 p. 12), show that paper, pulp, and board take up 45% of the world’s commercial timber. In addition, many countries use paper for their packaging. In Europe, Asia, America, and many other countries, paper production manages these forests eliminating the non-timber uses, which is crucial for the local people. In addition, cutting down forests for paper production affects biodiversity and the environment, which includes water and soil. Further research shows that foreigners often purchase these forest plantations, and this keeps the local government from their control. According to a report by UNEP (2013), paper production may sometimes use non-timber plant materials like the bamboo forests that seem to disappear slowly in India. These plants have environmental effects similar to the timber forests especially during wood pulp production. During paper production, there are ranges of pollutant emissions, which pollute the water and marine ecosystems whether through chemical or mechanical bleaching. These pollutants equally affect the human health. The wastes from paper production fill the landfill sites although paper recycling is now common especially because it saves energy and resources. It is unfortunate how these loggers continue clearing the natural forests considering that these forests help in rain formation. Industries have cleared the natural forests in order to have the fabricated forest. These forests are homes to much wildlife, and clearing these forests affects their habitat. Paper production and use are on the increase, and, unfortunately, this has caused an outcry from the public and environmental activists. The paper factories continue polluting both the air and water during production. On the other hand, felling of trees affects biodiversity including soil and water. In addition, these natural forests are homes to different wildlife species and clearing them affects their habitats. Literature review Sustainability of the environment involves decision making and taking of actions that are in the interest of offering protection to the natural world, with particular focus on preserving the ability and the capability of the environment to support any biological life. It involves making decisions that are responsible that are aimed at reducing any business or industrial actions negative impact to the environment. It is not just about decreasing the amount of waste products being produced to the environment or using less amount of energy in the production, but it is majorly concerned with the process of development that will ultimately lead the industry to become a complete and sustainable industry in the future. Today, sustainability of the environment is regarded as a topical issue that receives lots of attention from the media and different departments of the government. Environmental sustainability forces industries to have a wider picture, look beyond short-term objectives, and the long-term impact of the industry on the environment and the entire natural world. The industries not only need to consider the immediate impact it has on the environment but also its long-term implications too. When manufacturing a product, the industry needs to have a thorough look at its products lifecycle impact to the environment, this starts from the product development to its disposal on the environment. It well evident that the production of paper, like other brands of industries, has several environmental effects. The using and processing of the raw materials have several negative effects on the environment. On the other hand, there exist technologies that can moderate the negative impacts on the environment, and they have positive economic effect. One of these process if the recycling of paper. The major benefit of recycling paper is a double decrease in the environmental load. From the first point of view, the natural resources are conserved at side of the inputs in the process of manufacturing. From the second point of view, the compounds amounts that are harmful leaking to the environment decreases at the manufacturing process outputs side (Byström & Lönnstedt 1997). The production of paper from recycling fibers use less amount of energy; conserves the use of resources that are natural like wood and helps in decreasing the amount of environmental pollution. The conflict between the environmental protection and the economic optimization has received wide attention in recent research programs. A total of paper production in Europe by the year 2005 was ninety-nine point three million tons that generated eleven million tons of waste, which represents approximately eleven percent in relation to the total production of paper. The production of recycled paper was approximated to be at forty-seven points three million tons generating about seven point seven million tons of solid waste during the same period. During the past decades, the consumption of the recovered paper has been growing. In 2005, the use of recycled paper was almost even with the use of virgin fiber. The technology of recycling is not a new; it has been a commercial proposition since the establishment of the Neckinger mill back in the year 1826. The use of recycling has been thought to reduce the swelling capacity of fiber, and thus fiber flexibility. Recycling of paper is becoming more important for the sustainable development of the paper industry as a sound environmental friendly industry (Laplante 1996). Fig. 1. European paper recycling 1995-2009 in million tonnes In addition, it has been established that production of paper pulp is responsible for the rapid global expansion in areas where trees are intensively managed some of which are mainly managed through natural forest clearance. To date, ancient forests are still being logged for timber products. The paper and pulp industry is one of the largest greenhouse gases emitters. It uses a vast amount of energy and water and produces a significant amount of landfill waste and pollutants to the environment. The production of paper as well as its use has had several environmental effects that are collectively referred to as the “paper pollution”. Pulp milling contributes to water, land and air pollution. A major element of several landfill sites is the paper that is discarded; it accounts for approximately thirty-five percent weight of the total waste in solid form before recycling. On the other hand, recycling of paper also forms part of the sources of pollution because of the production of sludge during the de-inking process (Barla 2007). It is ironical that as the rate of global expansion increases, the demand of paper is increasing globally. At the same time, there is a demand to have a sustainable and environmentally safe production. The production of paper and pulp comes third in ranking as the largest water, land and air polluter. It realises approximately one hundred million kilograms of harmful pollution every tear. The production of paper comes fifth among the leading consumers of global energy. It accounts for approximately a small percent, four, of the entire world’s energy consumption. The industry consumes huge amount of water in producing nearly one ton of paper product compared to other industries. Environmental impact of paper production Historically, the production of paper and pulp has been ranked among the most resource-intensive industries and highly polluting industries of all the manufacturing industries globally. Besides the use of fibres, the primary inputs into the manufacturing process of paper are water, chemicals and energy. Paper and pulp industry is the largest user of industrial process water per ton of product. In addition, it is also the world’s leading energy consumer. Furthermore, the process of papermaking involves intensive chemical process. One of the industries that majorly emits toxics release inventory chemicals to water and into the atmosphere is the pulp and paper industry (Bloemhof-Ruwaard et al. 1996). Even after the paper has been thrown away, its impact on the environment continues. By the year 2008, paperboard and paper accounted for approximately thirty-four percent, which is the largest portion, of the municipal waste stream. The problem with all the paper being thrown away goes beyond just landfill space. Paper has the ability to undergo decomposition producing methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas with about twenty-one times the heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. Transportation throughout the system has a great impact on the environment. The trees that have been harvested or the paper recovered are transported to the pulp mills, huge rolls of papers are transported to converters and the finished products of paper are transported to wholesale distributors and then to the retail point of sale. The transportation taking place in each stage consumes energy and thus resulting in the emission of greenhouse gas (Koskela 2011). Impact include- Deforestation The global increase in demand and paper consumption is rapidly increasing at an alarming rate with the increase in globalization. Over the past forty years, the paper consumption has risen by approximate four hundred percent with about thirty-five percent of the total trees harvested around the world used in the industrial production of paper. The forest plantation, from which the majority of the wood is harvested for pulping, is normally a monoculture. This creates a concern over the effects of mass harvesting of trees on the natural ecology. With mass harvesting of trees in natural forest plantation where there is no replacement the number of trees is constantly being depleted. As a result of this mass harvesting, deforestation is seen as a major problem of paper production. Many countries are seeing a further impact of deforestation. Deforestation might eventually lead to desertification and massive soil erosion leading to nutrient loss in the soil (Boyd & McClelland 1999). Air pollution Paper and pulp milling industries are the leading sources of standard air pollutants. The industries release a large amount of air pollutants ranging from carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxides, nitrous oxide, carbon monoxides and other particulates that might lead to air pollution. These gases are the major contributors to global warming, ozone warnings, respiratory problems and acidic rain. Several paper-milling industries are large enough to have their power plants that are fired by coal and this further raises additional concerns about the radioactive emissions, arsenic, as well as mercuric emissions from coal combustion. With bulk release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the air is getting more and more polluted with the increase in paper demand and its production. Water pollution The paper and pulp mills waste discharges contain nutrients, solids, and organic matter that are dissolved. They include lignin the waste matter also has contents of alcohol, chelating agents and several other inorganic materials such as transition metal compounds and chlorates. The water quality being discharged and the quality of the water being used in pulp and paper manufacturing industries are causing serious concerns to the environment. In addition to the pollutants, that disrupt the endocrine, wastewater from pulping and papermaking process contains suspended sulfur compounds as well as solid compounds. Large amount of nutrients including nitrogen and phosphorus being discharged into water bodies may trigger rapid eutrophication in lakes and rivers. The ecological characteristics of fresh waters are changed and interfered by the organic matter being released from the paper industries into water bodies. In more worst-case scenarios, it leads to the death of all higher living organisms in the water. The organisms that get nutrients from the waste materials in the water raises the demand of water oxygen thus making the water oxygen decrease in an amount for other living organisms in the water. When such water that is oxygen depleted is channeled into lakes and rivers, it tends to disrupt the aquatic ecosystem balance. Water released as waste from the paper industry may also be polluted with compounds of organochlorine. Some of these compounds are naturally occurring in wood, but bleaching of the wood using chlorine produces a large amount of such compounds that is ultimately discharged into waters thus causing water pollution. The discharges from the paper industry also cause discoloration of the water leading to a decrease in the aesthetic beauty of the surrounding environment (Doonan et al. 2005). Energy consumption Despite the fact, that most paper milling industries are decreasing their over-reliance on the nonrenewable resources, the entire process of producing paper requires a huge amount of energy. The process of paper milling is known to be a major energy consuming process. Since the process is energy intensive, a large amount of electricity is, therefore, drawn to the industry at the expense of public utility. In addition, several mills have been forced to build their power generating plants to boost their high-energy demand for energy. The high demand for energy is a significant contributor to air pollution and the hidden damages as a result of extraction of fuel from the source to support the energy production. Water consumption Paper industry is the number one consumer of water of all the sectors of industries. Despite the fact that the industrial process water can be treated and responsibly reused, manufacturing approximately one tin if high-quality paper produces about twenty thousand gallons of waste water. The entire process of paper and pulp manufacturing consumes more water from the environment than any other industry. The industries need water in its entire process thus reducing the amount of water in the surrounding environment. In most cases, due to the industries huge demand for water, it is built next to a water source such as lake or river. With more water being directed to the industry, the people who are living downstream receive less amount of water to support their living and any agricultural activity (Monte et al. 2009). Solid waste The process of milling paper leads to the production of a large amount of solid waste to the environment. Unfortunately, the costs of landfills are cheap thus; the industries have little or no incentive at all to make efficient use of its chemicals and materials. Because of the many paper industries in the world, a huge amount of waste materials is generated. Paper fibers can only be recycled for a limited number of times before becoming too weak or too short to make more other high-quality papers. This translates to the fact that the fibers, which are of low quality and broken are separated out from the high-quality fibers to form a waste sludge. All the materials including coatings, ink, staples, “stickies” (example tapes), and dyes are washed out of the fiber that is being recycled to form part of the waste solids that are ultimately discharged as solid waste pollutants to the environment. During recycling process, the shiny finish that is produced using a kaolin clay coating is also removed to form part of the sludge. The huge amount of sludge produced from the paper milling industries consumes a great percentage of most of the landfill space every year. Making things worse, most of these wastes are spreading beyond landfills towards croplands as a method of disposal. This raises great alarm on the trace contaminants that are accumulating in the soil or running off down into the large water bodies such as the lakes and the streams. It has been observed that some companies are burning down their sludge waste in huge incinerators thus contributing to serious problems of air pollution including dioxin release into the atmosphere. Continuous toxic chemical pollution Paper milling industries use hazardous substances including lye or caustic soda to break down the wood pulp for making paper. Globally, the paper and pulp industry is the single largest industry that consumes a huge amount of caustic soda. The use of caustic soda using the old technologies releases millions of tons of mercury every year globally. Though several countries are adopting technologies that are environmentally superior, some paper manufacturing plants are still using the outdated process that leads to the emission of a huge amount of mercury. The pulp and paper milling industry substantially contributes to the emission of mercuric substances through its heavy energy consumption. Coal-fired power plants that generate the industries energy form the largest source of mercury emission globally. Mercury, being part of the heavy metals, transforms into a harmful compound of methyl mercury in water and soils. After making the pulp, it then undergoes the process of bleaching to make a copy paper. The conventional method of bleaching uses compounds of chlorine that contributes to the concentration of the hazardous dioxin, furans and several other organic compounds that are chlorinated. Though there has been a significant improvement with technological advances, the entire process still produces certain amount of compounds containing chlorine such as dioxin. When this compound is released into the air, they finally enter the waterways through rain where they accumulate in fishes and eventually end up in human food system causing lethal toxic effects. Alteration of habitat Conventional practices of logging and conversation of forests to plantation of trees are continuously reducing the extent of biodiversity in the environment. These degrade the wetlands and limit the capacity of carbon storage. By limiting the storing capacity for carbon, it is significant in contributing to climatic changes beyond the use of energy required by the paper milling industries. Globally, forests are the leading single land use of carbon. However, since the year 1990, their effectiveness as sources of carbon has been declining. Converting natural forests into a plantation leads to a decrease in carbon and consequently decreases the protection of wetlands that were naturally provided by the natural forests. In addition, the leading cause of freshwater wetlands loss worldwide is the conversion of natural forests into tree plantations. Without plants and trees in place, wind and rain easily wash away the fertile topsoil into waterways thus decreasing the fertility of the soil. With increased logging, vegetation cover is decreased thus increasing the flooding risks, which destroys wetlands and decreases the likelihood of forest regeneration (Brnnlund et al. 1995). How the environmental impacts can be mitigated Some of the effects of the paper and pulp industry can be successfully be addressed towards a sustainable practice that will have no significant impact on the environment. The use of wood solely from the forest plantation addresses major concerns with the loss of the old forest growth around the globe. Some of the mitigating processes include: Bleaching The move to use non-elemental chlorine for the process of bleaching will help in significantly reducing the carcinogenic substance emission of the organochlorines. Better and safer non-elemental chlorine substances currently being used in the bleaching sequence include oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. The use of these alternatives leads to the production of papers that are chlorine free. Recycling Recycling is the best alternative to the use of landfills for disposing papers. In the recycling industry, the process is one of the fewer complicated procedures. It is thought that measures have to be taken to enhance the process of recycling in order to lower the negative effects of landfills in the environment. This is because; several hazardous elements are produced and spread because of the trash enclosure. Most recycled paper is priced higher compared to the paper that is freshly made. This continues being a deciding factor in the cost of the consumers. Since the majority of the pulp being recycled is bought in an open market, clean paper is produced at a cheaper price with the pulp. Virgin paper is made from pulp from trees and has no recycled content. Regulations Guidelines and regulations on the environmental safety should be enacted to help in regulating the paper and pulp industries that have the potential to cause great effect to the environment and the society as a whole. The guidelines for the environment safety and health should list out the specific rules and requirements for the paper milling industries that explains what the industries should follow so that they can be bale to limit the pollution that is consequently distributed by the milling industries (Szabó et al. 2009). Mechanical pulp mills The use of mechanical pulp through grinding of wood is a technique used mainly for manufacturing newsprint and can prove to be helpful in mitigating the impact of paper and pulp industries on the environment. This process uses fewer chemicals than the other types of mills. The major source of pollution from these mills is the organic materials including resin acids that are released during the processing of the wood. As opposed to the bleaching process that uses toxic chemicals that are needed for the chemical pulps, the mechanical process of wood pulping requires “brightening”. Conclusion The entire world consumes over thirty million tons of paper annually most of which is quickly put onto waste. The purchaser of these papers have the legal power to mitigate the negative environmental effect of pulp and paper industry by shifting the market towards the papers that are manufactured from the waste of post-consumer, without chlorinated compounds, and from fibers harvested from forests that are managed responsibly. Of all the effects that paper and pulp milling compacts have to the environment, a huge percentage of the effects can be controlled when right regulatory mechanisms are put in place. Therefore, it is required for the necessary stakeholders to take responsibility for ensuring the natural environment is preserved as well as the entire ecosystem. References Barla, P., 2007. ISO 14001 certification and environmental performance in Quebec’s pulp and paper industry. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 53, pp.291–306. Bloemhof-Ruwaard, J.M. et al., 1996. An environmental life cycle optimization model for the European pulp and paper industry. Omega, 24, pp.615–629. Boyd, G.A. & McClelland, J.D., 1999. The impact of environmental constraints on productivity improvement in integrated paper plants. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 38, pp.121–142. Brnnlund, R., Fre, R. & Grosskopf, S., 1995. Environmental regulation and profitability: An application to Swedish pulp and paper mills. Environmental & Resource Economics, 6, pp.23–36. Byström, S. & Lönnstedt, L., 1997. Paper recycling: Environmental and economic impact. 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