[] TL: GREENPEACE SPECIAL: PAPER (GP) How paper damages the environment and what can be done about it. SO: Greenpeace International DT: 1990 Keywords: toxics paper production factsheets gp greenpeace groups solid waste / [part 1 of 3] CONTENTS Introduction I Consumption of wood - the raw material for paper II Wood pulp A. Obtaining the pulp B. Bleaching and organochloride compounds III From pulp to paper IV Fibre utilisation - refuse tip or recycling V Checklist: treating paper ecologically Hamburg, January 1991 Ladies and Gentlemen: How is a spruce tree turned into gravure printing paper? How does dioxin get into a milk carton? What exactly is chlorinated bleaching? How much wood is there after all in allegedly "wood- free paper? Which is the more ecological - chlorine-free or recycled paper? You'll find answers to these and other questions in this new Greenpeace Special - itself "hot from the press". The topic: "How paper damages the environment and what can be done about its. This publication will be a valuable source of information on the latest technical and ecological developments in chemical- pulp and paper manufacture. It is aimed at experts, consumers, journalists, environmentalists and all chemical pulp manufacturers and printers. Our everyday lives are inconceivable without paper. We receive information on it as well as wrapping slices of cheese and meat in it. After jotting down our thoughts on a piece of paper, we then usually toss it away without another thought. This publication seeks to remedy this. In recent years the paper market has opened up. Environmentalists - and the Greenpeace paper campaign has been significant here - have stepped up the pressure and directed the attention of paper manufacturers towards ecological considerations. discontinuing the use of chlorine bleaching while switching to recycled paper are only the two most obvious requirements. Yours faithfully, Dr Christoph Thies Greenpeace Paper Campaign (Germany) [Translator: errata amended in the body of the English text] Introduction Paper goes back 600 years - is it environmentally harmless? (Caption): Despite rising rates of recycling in most Western countries, production and consumption of chemical and wood pulp as the starting fibre for paper have also been increasing constantly in recent years. (Text): Six hundred years ago, the first paper mill was built in Nuremberg, Germany. It was the start of an industry now vitally important throughout the world. Per capita paper consumption is regarded as a barometer of a country's prosperity and its level of technical progress. In west Germany consumption is very high -210 kg per person. That's five times the world average and twice as much as in, say, Italy. In theory, paper can fulfil all the requirements of an environmentally harmless and natural product. It is manufactured from a sustainable raw material, can be reused (recycled) and, ultimately, is biologically degradable. The reality is different. Manufacturing paper and chemical pulp creates large volumes of toxic waste water and consumes appreciable quantities of energy and fresh water. Ruthless forest-clearing practices and monocultural reforestation (ie with one type of tree) destroy complex ecosystems, reducing many forests to mere tree farms dependent on chemical fertilisation and pesticides. Despite rising rates of recycling in most Western countries, the production and consumption of chemical and wood pulp as the starting fibre for paper has risen constantly in recent years. The reasons, to name but a few, are the steadily increasing use of paper for computer printouts, the flourishing advertising and promotion sectors and growing market shares for throw-away products such as food packaging and sanitary articles. Meanwhile, the Western consumer societies are drowning in their own rubbish, up to 40% of which consists of paper. Requirements in terms of quality and whiteness have now become extreme. Highly bleached chemical pulp makes it possible to achieve a degree of whiteness unknown only a few decades ago. This chemical pulp is bleached with chlorine or chlorinated chemicals. This process gives rise to chlorine compounds which, once released, are extremely damaging to the environment. So per capita consumption of paper is also a barometer of a country's share in polluting the earth's environment. The most progressive societies are those which deal most carefully with paper and use the best methods to recycle it. Manufacturing paper does not have to harm the environment if the use of energy, fresh water and chemicals is minimised and the wood that does enter the production cycle is utilised to the full. Chemical-pulp bleaching and sophisticated finishes for paper products are then only carried out when absolutely necessary for using the product - and only with non-toxic substances. So paper can be an ecologically sound product, if we manufacture and use it sensibly. A short history of paper The raw material for paper has always been cellulose, a vegetable material. Materials resembling paper used for storing information are among civilisation's earliest achievements. The word "paper" is derived from the Ancient Egyptian "papyrus", which designated a type of reed whose stem pith was cut into strips, arranged into criss-crossing layers and worked into sheets. This were then joined up into long rolls. The Egyptians already knew this process around 4000 years ago. Until the twelfth century AD, papyrus and parchment - which is made of animal skins - were the only significant writing materials in western Europe. A Chinese invention ushered in a revolution in the shape of the paper we still use to this day. The new manufacturing technique reached Spain first, arriving in Germany around 1390. The raw materials were bamboo, base, flax, hemp, jute, linen, reeds or straw. The equally revolutionary invention of printing led to an enormous increase in the need for paper over the following centuries. It rapidly became impossible to meet this requirement with paper made from linen (chiefly rags) and grass fibres alone. The problem was solved in the mid-nineteenth century, when new techniques made it possible to use wood as well. Nowadays we take paper and its associated products for granted [Translator: next sentence in {...} also the caption on page 7]: {It now has many more applications than simply disseminating the spoken word in a more durable form. Wrapping paper, sanitary articles, tea bags, coffee filters and cigarette papers are all made of paper - along with about 3000 other products. Without paper we couldn't train people, governments couldn't govern and industry couldn't function.} It's therefore entirely logical to treat this vital commodity with care. Safe and clean production processes are a necessity. Raw materials need to be selected rationally and not wasted when they have been. What does all this amount to in practise? How can consumers bring their influence to bear? We place the entire issue in context by tracing the path the cellulose fibres follow - starting off with the trees, moving on to how the fibres are obtained from the wood and processed into paper and what the paper is then used for. We conclude each chapter with a list of the measures required if we are to build an environmentally harmless paper industry. We then end by addressing the above, vital question: what can the consumer do? (Caption p 5): About 20% of west German domestic rubbish is paper. (Diagram p 6): The path of fibres in the paper industry - cycle or one way street? Current situation Origin: Wood from monocultures or deforestation; from boreal or even tropical forest. Obtained by: eg using fibre bleaches containing chlorinated chemicals > worldwide, around 10 000 chlorine compounds are released into the environment every day. Paper manufacture: Hundreds of chlorinated chemicals and additives are commercially available; these can cause problems, eg in white pigments (heavy metals), optical brighteners, anti-damp and anti-mucilage agents Processing / Printing: Printing ink is difficult to break down, sometimes difficult to de-ink, with some isolated heavy metals still present; compound packaging with synthetic material and/or aluminium prevent recycling. Utilisation: Most of the fibres are used only once, worldwide, around half a million tonnes of waste paper generated daily. Waste disposal: A big problem because the waste paper is contaminated with organic chlorine and heavy metals. Forest: high wood consumption much waste little recycling Objective: Wood from locally specific [?] productive natural forest Without use or formation of environmentally hazardous substances No additives unless absolutely necessary, and only then environmentally harmless ones to be used Non-toxic, biologically degradable printing inks; do not disrupt the recycling process Fibres can be recycled several times Unproblematic as the fibre is free of toxic substances, eg can be used as compost or for agriculture Forest: low wood consumption little waste much recycling 1. The raw-material basis - using wood for paper (Caption); Massive wooded areas are threatened with deforestation Since the cellulose fibres used for manufacturing paper are obtained almost exclusively from wood, consumption of paper and wood are closely linked. For years now the world's paper industry has been growing at a pace scarcely equalled in any other sector. New fibre mills are springing up everywhere, especially in North America, Europe and Latin America. These continents, which already produce the lion's share of the world's paper-fibre products, will account for almost 90% of the new capacity. These facilities are often enormous chemical-pulp factories producing 1500 tonnes or more a day - enough for many millions of consumers. The immense wood requirement of a factory like this thousands of trees every day - causes large-scale deforestation. The ecological effects are soil erosion and changes in the local climate. Reforestation with fast-growing, genetically cultivated and frequently non-indigenous trees can easily destroy a previously intact eco-system. Most of the wood fibre obtained in the new plants is ultimately destined for the paper mills of Japan, Europe and North America - the very industrial societies now being buried in their own, largely paper rubbish. Only a few countries have sensible recycling schemes, and the use of throw-away products, for instance for packaging, is growing rapidly. [Translator: next sentence between {...} also large caption on page 11] {Annual world consumption of paper and board is already more than 230 million tonnes and is forecast to exceed 300 m tonnes by the year 2000.} Worldwide daily paper output alone consumes the wood of several million trees - an unimaginable quantity. Far greater quantities still are destroyed by "slashing and burning" to clear forested areas or used as firewood, building wood or furniture. Nevertheless, of all wood-consuming sectors it is the paper industry which is growing the most rapidly. The ecological consequences of using European wood If wood consumption continues its present steady increase, what will the ecological consequences be in future? What consequences are already there to be seen? A natural or near-natural forest, with its trees, plants, animals and micro-organisms, is a well-adjusted ecosystem. Since the "units" of the whole have a balanced relationship, the ecosystem can respond with remarkable flexibility to outside attack rapidly cancelling out the adverse effects. It is true that in Germany and the surrounding countries, where the last natural forests disappeared in the Middle Ages, care is taken to log only as much wood as can be replenished (the "sustainability" principle). But questionable forestry techniques have been practised in this region, too. Native, deciduous forest, which still accounted for most of the region's timber stand in the Middle Ages, has been cleared and replaced artificially by conifers. Why? Conifers grow quicker and take up less space. Already, 70% of (west) Germany's timber stand is conifer. Forestry practices concerned only with short-term utility have eliminated many of the tree species still extant in the medieval forests, and have also led to the standardisation of tree ages in stands. This makes trees more susceptible to storm and snow damage as well as pests. Moreover, the trees are barely capable of rejuvenating themselves through natural growth. This was particularly apparent after the hurricanes in spring 1990. Alarming losses of monocultural spruces were revealed, while natural, mixed woodland survived largely intact. Up in the far North... Even worse is the ruthless deforestation commonly practised in Scandinavia and, on an even wider scale, in North America and the USSR. The effects on the soil are serious: the water balance collapses, and erosion by wind and weather renders the soil infertile. Along with the demise of the forest many animal and plant species also disappear - usually for good. Where reforestation succeeds at all it is usually done monoculturally with conifers, as in Central Europe. Swedish forestry is threatening 140 animal and plant species there. Much of the deforestation which has occurred has been in the world's northernmost forest belt - the "boreal coniferous zone". Finnish legislation passed in autumn 1990 paved the way for northern Europe's last areas of natural forest, in the Lap region of northern Finland, to be put to economic use. The very existence of these forests is therefore threatened. Canada and the USSR, two of the most heavily wooded countries in the world, still have extensive tracts of natural boreal forest. But if exploitation of the forest continues at the present rapid pace, it will be virtually gone in twenty years' time. In the Canadian province of Alberta, permission has been given for an area of boreal forest the size of Great Britain to be exploited economically. As above, this means deforestation. Most of the concessionaries are Japanese chemical-pulp groups such as Daishowa, Honshu and Mitsubishi, but the US sanitary- products manufacturer Proctor & Gamble is also a major player. Larch, spruce, fir and pine grow extremely slowly. Their long, dark cellulose fibres are much prized by the paper industry. These dark trees, located in regions with snow cover practically the whole year round, influence the earth's radiation balance and therefore play a role in determining the earth's climate. Any forestry which tampers with these natural forests cannot be ecological. They should be left untouched. If any wood at all is removed from them, then the amounts should be negligible. ...and in the South In the tropical and subtropical regions of the planet, large- scale reforestation of devastated wooded areas is done with extremely fast growing eucalyptus trees. These are specially cultivated for the needs of the paper industry. German manufacturers purchase vast quantities of eucalyptus pulp from Brazil and Portugal. The unbroken rows of standardised trees take up far more water and nutrients from the soil than natural forest does. This causes the ground water level to fall, so fertilisation is then frequently necessary. Monocultures quickly loses their biological equilibrium under stress, for instance when under massive insect attack. Nature's attempts to regain balance are then answered by further doses of highly toxic chemicals until the vicious circle is complete. The effects can take centuries to clear up - if at all. The global paper industry's demands for fibre doesn't even spare the tropical rain forests, which are threatened with complete annihilation. [Translator: next passage, in {...} , also caption on page 13] {The Thai jungle is being deliberately cleared for reforestation with the lucrative eucalyptus. This is also planned in Irian Jaya (Indonesia). The Japanese corporation JANT, subsidiary of the paper giant Honshu, is busy destroying rain forest in Papua New Guinea so that firms such as Sony and Panasonic have the cardboard to package their video recorders and stereos.} Malaysia's entire chemical-pulp output is based on mixed tropical hardwoods in Borneo; the environment minister has one of the biggest logging concessions while the local people no longer have clean drinking water. In Indonesia's East Kalimantan, there are also plans to process hardwoods for their fibres. Despite the constant assertions made in Germany that paper used there does not contain tropical wood products, in the light of consumption trends vigilance is required. The German paper industry says it's "caring for the forest" German paper manufacturers are always claiming that by utilising shavings and otherwise non-useable wood resulting from forestry protection methods they are actually helping to care for the forests. The argument sounds convincing, but gives the erroneous impression that the entire requirement is met from German forests. In fact, very little German paper originates from German trees. Most of the wood is North American and Scandinavian. If Germany's entire wood output was used by the German paper industry, the much larger construction and furniture sectors would get virtually nothing. The alternative would be to increase logging, which would spell the gradual demise of Germany's forests. In view of the ecological damage caused by obtaining the wood, the (west) German paper industry probably has more of a harmful than beneficial effect on the world's forests. No other country in the world uses such a high proportion and such a high volume of wood from foreign forests. Manufacturers should face up to their co-responsibility for the forests which supply their imported chemical pulp. They should direct their efforts towards reducing imports and improving exploitation of these lower quantities. In this respect, some paper manufacturers are further forward than others. For instance Haindl of Augsburg (Bavaria), one of Germany's largest producers of bulk printing paper, recycles a great deal of used paper. For this reason the firm uses only a tenth as much wood per product as VP-Schickedanz of Nuremberg - Germany's market leader for sanitary articles such as paper handkerchiefs. Although the technology exists for the Nuremberg firm to manufacture most of its product range out of recycled paper, it doesn't use a single gramme. Instead, most of its requirement is met by chemical pulp derived mostly from North American wood. [Translator: next passage {...} also caption on page 14] {If the whole world used as much paper as Germany, populous China alone would consume the entire current world output. World consumption would then be over a billion tonnes of paper and board a year.} Even if we were to optimise wood utilisation by recycling paper and taking various other measures, the sheer volumes of fibre needed could not be supplied without destroying all the world's natural and near-natural forests. Clearly, therefore, it is the big paper consumers like Germany who must make the greatest efforts to reduce their consumption. Summary We are using so much wood that the last natural forests are being turned into treeless steppe or fragile monocultures which destroy the soil. The paper industry is the fastest growing wood-consuming sector. Overall, the (west) German paper industry's effect on the forests is not a positive one. Through it's large scale use of foreign wood products, it is helping to destroy the world's forests. Necessary measures: We have to stop the disastrous spiral of growth in wood consumption by being thrifty with paper and optimising the utilisation of the wood which is used (paper recycling). Wood should only be taken from mixed forests where ecologically sound forestry practices adapted to local requirements are applied. Large-scale deforestation and monoculture should be banned. page 9 (pie chart): The largest producer countries of chemical pulp, 1988 (in thousands of tonnes) Total world output: 125 739 West Germany 0.7% - 850 Austria 0.9% - 1179 Portugal 1.2% - 1530 France 1.3% - 1664 Brazil 3.1 % - 3871 Finland 4.6% - 5762 Sweden 5.9% - 7403 China 6.2% - 7795 USSR 6.3%- 7915 Japan 6.6% - 8251 Canada 10.6% - 13268 USA 40% - 50137 Source: Papier, 1990 (below: bar chart): World requirement of raw materials for paper in 1987 and 2000 (in millions of tonnes) 1987 2000 growth in % Total Additives Waste paper Wood pulp Chemical pulp Source: dpw, 3/4 1989 page 10 (bar chart): The expanding pulp centres Growth in % Planned expansion for 1990 - 93 in 1000 t Pulp output in 1989 in 1000 t Total pulp output: 163 904 000 t Planned growth for '90-'93: 13% = 21 023 000 t Europe - North America - Latin America - Asia - Australia/NZ - Africa Source: PPI, 1990 page 11 (small caption): Devastated natural forest. Much of this wood goes to satisfy our hunger for paper. page 12 (caption): Tropical rain forest - as here in Thailand - is also being sacrificed for paper [] TL: GREENPEACE SPECIAL: PAPER (GP) How paper damages the environment and what can be done about it. SO: Greenpeace International DT: 1990 Keywords: toxics paper production factsheets gp greenpeace groups solid waste / [part 2 of 3] II. Pulp derived from wood A. Obtaining the pulp Wood is the raw material for paper. Paper is 40 to 50% cellulose fibres, 20 to 30% lignin (the substance which makes wood rigid) and 20 to 30% aromatic oils, resins and hemicellulose (occurring in the cell wall). Trees can be divided into two groups: deciduous and coniferous. Deciduous trees such as maple, birch, beech and eucalyptus supply hardwoods with short fibres (1-2 mm long). Conifers such as pine, spruce and fir provide softwoods with long fibres (3-5 mm). Hardwood contains more cellulose fibres than softwood, which contains more resin. To manufacture paper, it is necessary to isolate the cellulose fibres in the wood to obtain a pulp for forming into sheets. The fibres are solidly bound with lignin, which acts as a kind of biological glue and makes the tree hard. The fibres therefore have to be separated from the lignin. This can be done either chemically by boiling the wood with chemicals, or mechanically by "pulping" or shredding the wood. There are different processes for obtaining pulp from the various types of wood, since chemical composition varies. Chemical pulp This is the name given to the fibrous material obtained from the wood chemically. There are two methods of doing this: the kraft (sulphate) process and the sulphite process. The kraft process: after the second world war the kraft process became the commonest method for obtaining pulp. This was because of its versatility, and because it causes the least damage to the fibres during removal of lignin and resins from conifers. This yields particularly firm pulp. The kraft process involves boiling wood shavings with an alkali sulphate solution. It is when these boiled chemicals are recovered afterwards that you get the smell of rotten eggs so typical of pulp mills. Sulphite process: This is the only process used in (west) Germany. It uses salts of sulphurous acid to separate the lignin form the wood. The pulps obtained by the two processes differ mainly in brightness and strength. Kraft pulp has the brown colour of packing paper and is very strong. Sulphite pulp is brighter and softer but less strong. Isolating the fibres chemically yields very pure fibres and leaves only small quantities of lignin or other wood constituents in the pulp. However, since fibres account for only 40 to 50% of the wood, less than half the wood used is converted into pulp. The other half, burned when the chemicals are recovered, is used to generate power and steam for boiling the wood. Woodpulp Pulp derived from wood chiefly by mechanical methods is called "wood pulp". Up to 95% of the wood is turned into pulp. In other words, if a tree supplies 50 kilogrammes of chemical pulp, the same tree will yield 100 kg of wood pulp. The original method of manufacturing pulp for paper is to compress decorticated (ie with the bark removed) wood against a grinding stone. This yields "mechanical wood pulp". A more up-to-date mechanical method is to strip down wood shavings between rotating metal disks - "refiners". This refined wood pulp is rather stronger than the usual product. "Thermomechanical pulp" (TMP) is the term applied to the pulp obtained when the wood shavings are pre-heated with steam. If the shavings are soaked in sulphurous chemicals before the steam treatment, chemo-thermomechanical pulp (CTMP) is obtained. This chemical-treatment stage removes some of the lignin and resin from the wood, making the pulp stronger. CTMP can be manufactured from conifer as well as deciduous woodpulp, whereas mechanical pulp and TMP can only be extracted from conifers. Pulp production requires a great deal of electrical energy. Since wood pulp mills convert almost all the wood into pulp, they are obliged to use external sources of electricity. Chemical-pulp plants burn half the wood so need little energy from outside. Waste water and air pollution When kraft chemical pulp is manufactured without subsequent bleaching, the chemicals used are largely recoverable. The boiled lye with the separated wood wastes - containing toxic compounds such as resinous acids - is evaporated and burned off, leaving more than 95% of the chemicals to be recovered. The use of chemicals is therefore relatively low with this method: only about 20 kg of sodium sulphate and 75 kg of lime are required to produce a tonne of kraft chemical pulp. Even so, the manufacture of unbleached kraft pulp also harms the environment. [Translator: next passage {...} also large caption on page 18] {Per tonne of chemical pulp produced, modern kraft factories emit into the air between one and three kilogrammes of sulphur dioxide and up to a kilogram me of toxic organic sulphur compound and hydrogen sulphide. Fibres lost during the process and discharged into rivers and lakes use up oxygen during decomposition which is needed by fish.} If the fibres mat over into "fibre beds", they destroy all living organisms near the sewage outlets. Toxic condensates arising from the process of recovering chemicals require the biological purification of waste water. Aluminium salts, used for pre-cleaning the process water, are often discharged with waste water into rivers and lakes where they can damage fish (eg salmon). Regular leaks, if not traced and dealt with promptly, are disastrous for all living organisms downstream of a kraft factory. The sulphite process also enables recovery of the sulphurous sulphite salts, even if not quite as effectively as recovery of the alkali kraft chemicals. Modern sulphite installations emit around 5 kilogrammes of sulphur dioxide per tonne of pulp produced. Wood-pulp factories usually discharge the washed wood residues into rivers and lakes instead of burning them. Waste water from CTMP factories poses particular problems. This is because although sulphurous salts are added during the production process, the quantities are so low that with current techniques it is hardly economic to recover them. Toxic, organic sulphur compounds, resinous acids and other wood constituents in CTMP waste water are difficult to break down and extremely hazardous for fish. Biological purification of this waste water is therefore indispensable. And yet it is seldom done. Admittedly, the Canadians are now building a completely waste-water-free CTMP factory which will emit only steam and solid wastes. New chemical-pulp production processes Although the kraft pulp-production method is the most commonly used, it does have certain major disadvantages. The main one is the pulp's brown colour, which for many applications is removed with powerful bleaching agents (see below). Current bleaching techniques cause serious and long-term environmental damage, and they also contaminate the pulp with ultra-toxic substances such as dioxins. A further disadvantage is that the wood is poorly utilised. Instead of also being isolated and utilised, lignin and hemicellulose are burned. Finally, there is the "rotten-eggs" smell. This is why a licence to build a kraft factory has never been granted in heavily- populated west Germany. There are a number of novel and highly varied approaches to manufacturing chemical pulp. Some of them are already undergoing tests in pilot plants. To displace the kraft method from the market, these new approaches will have to avoid its disadvantages while demonstrating its benefits - strong pulp, versatility with regard to the kinds of wood it can be used for, high recoverability rates for chemicals. One of the most promising new techniques is the ASAM method, developed in west Germany. In autumn 1989, work was successfully started at a pilot plant. The method is aimed at combining the easy bleachability of sulphite pulp with the strengths of the Kraft process to achieve a clear reduction in environmental pollution. The disadvantages of poor utilisation of wood and sulphur contamination remain. Another west German initiative, the Acetosolv process, still awaits full technical development and is at a relatively early experimental stage. However, it avoids the above disadvantages. The lignin and hemicellulose are removed from the cellulose fibres using acetic acid. The acetic acid is then recycled. The lignin and hemicellulose are isolated and processed into such products as book adhesive. The US-developed Alcell and the west German organo-cell process are also sulphur free, using alcohol instead of acetate acid. A plant using the latter method will go into full-scale production in 1992. Both processes also allow the isolation and utilisation of the lignin. [Translator: next sentence also caption on page 20] {All the new approaches mentioned here are aimed at the production of bleachable chemical pulp from many different types of wood - easily, and without causing excessive environmental damage.} B. Bleaching and organochlorine compounds When boiling the wood, it is not possible to remove all the lignin from the chemical pulp without seriously damaging the cellulose fibres. Around 5 to 10% of the lignin remains in the pulp in an insoluble form, giving it the characteristic brown coloring. White pulp is obtained by bleaching this coloring away, usually by removing the lignin. Wood pulp, which in any case contains almost all the original lignin, is usually bleached with hydrogen peroxide. This then bleaches the colour out of the lignin by changing its chemical structure rather than removing it. Chlorinated gas produces organochlorine compounds In conventional bleaching techniques for chemical pulp, the first step is to remove most of the residual lignin using chlorinated gas. Then, the pulp is bleached white in several stages using chlorinated chemicals such as chlorine dioxide or hypochlorites. On average, 50 to 80 kilogrammes of chlorine are used per tonne of conventionally bleached kraft chemical pulp. About 10% of this chlorine becomes organically bound during the formation of organochlorine compounds and is released into rivers, lakes and the sea. Since hundreds of different organochlorine compounds are created during the process, precise analysis of waste bleaching waters is difficult. Essentially, however, these compounds can be summarised under the heading of organic chlorine (A OX/absorbable organic halogen). Chemical pulp factories with chemical bleaching plants discharge between 5 and 8 kilogrammes of AOX per tonne of bleached pulp directly into outside waters. When we consider that the average kraft chemical-pulp factory produces between 600 and 1000 tonnes of pulp a day and that for the waste bleaching water a kilogram me of AOX corresponds to about 10 kilogrammes* of organochlorine compounds, it becomes clear that the paper and pulp industry is releasing gigantic quantities of these compounds into the environment. Every day, our average factory is releasing between 30 and 80 tonnes of them. [Translator: this paragraph also caption on page 23] {Worldwide, chemical-pulp bleaching alone used more than 3.6 million tonnes of chlorinated gas in 1988. The amount of organochlorine compounds entering the environment in the same year was probably of a similar order - around 10 000 tonnes daily. No other industry is releasing anywhere near as much of these dangerous substances into the environment.} Organochlorine compounds - environmental toxins which are hard to break down Organochlorine compounds are substances with a chemical binding between the elements chlorine and carbon. This binding occurs naturally only in exceptional cases. Accordingly, nature has developed hardly any mechanisms for breaking it down quickly. This explains why organochlorine compounds have such long half- lives in the environment. Almost all the substances banned in recent years because of this - DDT, PCBs, toxaphene, chlordane, etc - are organochlorine compounds. They pose the greatest threat of all to inland waters and the sea. 12 out of 14 substances on the EC's "Black List" of chemicals of especial danger to the marine environment are in this category - and 8 out of these 12 have been found in waste bleaching water discharged from chemical pulp factories. The substances include such well-known toxins as pentachlorophenol (PCP), banned in (west) Germany, and chlorinated solvents such as dichloromethane, chloroform, trichloroethylene (Tri) and perchloroethylene (Per). All of these are carcinogens and/or genetically harmful. This is why some countries strictly limit or ban the use and emission of these organochlorine compounds. However, since they are (unintentionally) present in waste water, they reach the environment in these countries too, irrespective of national legislation. [Translator: next passage also caption on page 25]: {The waste water from bleaching factories is extremely damaging to fish and other marine life. As they have such long half-lives, the organochlorine compounds are able to accumulate in the food chain. In fish this impairs reproduction, damages the liver and immune system, causes changes to the blood, disturbs the electrolytic balance and affects the metabolism.} Fish with these symptoms have been being caught in the Baltic, a good 8 kilometres out from the discharge pipe of a Swedish chemical- pulp factory - a distance where the waste water was diluted by a factor of 1100!). Biological waste-water purification - no solution for organochlorine compounds Biological purification of waste water cannot degrade organochlorine compounds sufficiently. It is estimated that barely half of all these compounds are removed from the waste water. Some volatile organochlorine compounds are emitted into the air unmodified. For instance chloroform, which is highly volatile, is the source of much concern to the authorities and those working at pulp factory. It attacks the liver and is suspected of causing cancer in humans. US studies show that 300 grammes of chloroform are formed per tonne of pulp bleached. These quantities are then discharged into the air and water. This means that the average kraft paper- pulp factory is releasing between 180 and 300 kilogrammes every day. In many places, considerable quantities of chloroform are also entering rivers used to provide drinking water. This is despite the fact that, based on a potential cancer risk of 1 in 100 000 caused by exposure to chloroform, the US Environmental Protection Agency recommends that drinking water should contain no more than 2.1 millionths of a gramme of chloroform per litre! Highly volatile organochlorine compounds remain largely unchanged in treated sludge. Greenpeace estimates that in Finland alone, 11 000 tonnes of these compounds contained in treated sludge from chemical pulp factories end up on waste- disposal sites. But even if organochlorine compounds really are partially degraded by the factories' biological waste-water purification, this does not mean that they will be automatically broken down completely into non-hazardous chloride. Sometimes only "biological transformations" take place. These can produce other organochlorine compounds which are even more environmentally dangerous. Thus, chloroveratrole, a long-lasting chemical relative of the chlorophenols, has been found in the discharge but not the inlet - pipes of bleaching-water treating plants. So if even optimised industrial sewage-treatment installations are unable to break down most of the organochlorine compounds, how are rivers, lakes and the sea supposed to cope? What could be more obvious: we have to avoid the formation of these compounds in the first place by changing the bleaching processes. Dioxin - so toxic that one drop is enough to kill... Scientists had suspected for years that chlorine bleaching of chemical pulp can give rise to a particularly toxic group of organochlorine compounds - the dioxins. These are frequently created in the presence of other organochlorine compounds such as chlorophenolene. They had already been discovered in chemical-pulp waste water The dioxin theory was substantiated in 1985 when the US Environmental Protection Agency found dioxins in fish caught down river of pulp mills in Maine and Wisconsin. However, news of the link between dioxins and the paper industry stayed under wraps until August 1987. Until, that is, Greenpeace published "No Margin of Safety", its report revealing the conspiracy of silence between the EPA and the US paper industry. In its popular usage the term "dioxin" refers to the group of substances which comprises the chlorinated dibenzodioxins and dibenzofurans - in all 210 different compounds. This report uses the term "dioxins" (ie in the plural) to refer to the above compounds. The two most toxic representatives of each group are, firstly, the substance designated by the abbreviation 2,3,7,8- TCDD (tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin), which we shall refer as to "dioxin" (in the singular), and, secondly, 2,3,7,8-TCDF (tetrachlorodibenzofuran). Both these compounds, especially the latter, are also created during the bleaching process. [Translator: also caption on page 27] {Dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) is the most hazardous chemical toxin known. It is 10 000 times more toxic than potassium cyanide and its long-term effects make it especially pernicious. It is carcinogenic, impairs the immune system and deprives the organism of its capacity to resist other chemicals. Worst of all is the genetic and reproductive damage it causes.} Dioxin interacts with the genetic material inside the cells of the organism. This results in serious damage to the foetus, miscarriages and infertility. Many of the other dioxins are not only toxic but also accumulate in appreciable quantities in food chains. The poisoning of animals at the end of the chains, such as aquatic mammals, salmon and birds is already so far advanced that their reproductive capacity is seriously compromised. The consumption of 30 grammes of Baltic salmon a day (the average amount for Scandinavia) may result in an ingestion of dioxins 10 to 60 times greater than that via dairy fats (average daily consumption around 100 grammes), the second largest nutritional source of dioxins. A meal with a small portion of Baltic salmon - 100 g - may mean the ingestion of a quantity of dioxin (TCDD equivalent) corresponding to 10 millionths of a gramme. On average, it takes an adult three months to absorb this amount of dioxin! After waste incineration and scrap-metal recycling, chemical-pulp bleaching is the third largest cause of the massive dioxin contamination of the Baltic. Shortly after the publication of "No Margin of Safety", documents from the paper industry were leaked to Greenpeace. These confirmed that the US Paper Institute had colluded with the EPA to play down the significance of the dioxin findings and prevent immediate control measurements being taken. But the leaked information showed something else, too: dioxins had also been found in the bleached chemical pulp itself. They could therefore contaminate all domestic paper products, including babies' nap pies (diapers), women's sanitary articles, toilet paper, kitchen rolls, photocopy paper, coffee filters... More recent studies show that dairy products contained in cartons made from bleached chemical pulp can absorb alarming quantities of dioxins. The more fat the product contains, the higher the dioxin contamination. In New Zealand, this finding lead to the banning of milk cartons made of bleached chemical pulp. In Germany such cartons are still in use (eg the Tetra Pak company's "Tetra Rex"). The paper industry immediately rushed in with risk-analysis calculations purporting to demonstrate that these products are no danger to health whatsoever. These calculations, though, are all based on questionable assumptions or "dodgy" analytical methods. A Swedish Environmental Agency investigation of the distribution of dioxins released into the environment in 1988 revealed that chemical pulp bleaching, along with waste incineration and metal production, is a major source of dioxins. ...and yet even this is still only the tip of the iceberg But dioxins account for only some of the 1000 different organochlorine compounds estimated to arise during the bleaching process and whose total quantity is billions of times greater than that of the dioxins. It is quite possible that the chemical-pulp industry has even more super-toxins to spring on us. After all, only a fraction of all the organochlorine compounds in waste bleaching water have even been identified, let alone their combined effects and consequent dangers to the environment ascertained. After months of intensive research the paper industry came up with a "new solution" to the dioxin problem: the use of more chlorine dioxide and less chlorinated gas in the initial pulp- bleaching stage. While it is true that this change would clearly reduce the formation of dioxins, it would not prevent this altogether. Moreover, it would increase the formation of chlorates, which are inorganic chlorine compounds. These chlorates inflict serious damage on bladder wrack and other brown algae. Near the chemical-pulp mill at Monstera in southern Sweden, the bladder wrack was found to have been damaged or completely destroyed over a sea area of 12 square kilometres. Since it is used as a spawning ground by many species of fish, chlorates therefore interfere indirectly with their reproduction. Industry assures the public that it will stop discharging organochlorine compounds when their environmental toxicity has been proven. What this amounts to is that irreversible damage will first have to be inflicted and then scientifically documented before action is taken. But what industry should be doing right now is to equip properly for ecologically safe production. For the paper and chemical-pulp industry this means: stop all discharges of organochlorine compounds. Replace chlorine chemicals for chemical-pulp bleaching. Bleaching alternatives Oxygen: The toxic organochlorine compounds primarily arise when the lignin is removed using chlorine. So the more lignin is removed before chlorination, the fewer organochlorine compounds are formed. For the removal of lignin, chlorine can be largely replaced by oxygen. Unfortunately, oxygen does not react to lignin as specifically as does chlorine, so it can also easily attack the cellulose fibres. This may make the fibres less strong. In conventional bleaching processes, therefore, oxygen can only replace about 50% of the chlorine. Even so, organochlorine emissions would be halved overnight. Pre- bleaching with oxygen also makes good economic sense because it reduces the overall bleaching costs - oxygen being cheaper than chlorine. Moreover, waste water from oxygen bleaching, along with the boiled lye, can be burned and used for generating power. Further boiling: improved boiling processes would allow lignin to be removed even before bleaching takes place. This would reduce the formation of organochlorine compounds. The bar chart below shows the degree to which pre-bleaching with oxygen could render the massive use of chemicals superfluous. Hydrogen peroxide: This breaks down during and after bleaching into water and oxygen, which probably makes it the safest chemical used in bleaching processes. Essentially, hydrogen peroxide modifies those constituents of the lignin giving it its brown colour into a colourless form, but unlike chlorine it does not completely remove the lignin. Hydrogen peroxide also eliminates toxic resin acids. The paper industry is still stubbornly resisting the widespread introduction of products made of chemical pulp bleached without the use of chlorine. This means that consumers are being denied the choice, even though the German government for one now recognises the hazards associated with chlorine bleaching. The government is in fact calling on German paper manufacturers to discontinue the use of chlorine bleached pulp as of 1 July 1991. The Bundestag's (parliamentary) environmental committee also called for chlorine bleaching to be banned in its latest report on waste management. The report was submitted to the German Environment Minister in November 1990. The objective: no more chlorine chemicals Effective combination of the alternatives discussed above would enable industry to stop using chlorinated bleaching chemicals completely. This would prevent the formation of organochlorine compounds. When it comes to sulphite chemical pulp, which is easier to bleach, as of August 1990 there were already a dozen factories in Sweden, Norway, (west) Germany, Portugal and Austria which were bleaching either all or some of their output with hydrogen peroxide - alone or combined with oxygen - instead of chlorinated chemicals. This includes one chemical-pulp manufacturer (see Chapter lII). But discharges of toxic, waste bleaching water into our rivers, lakes and the sea will only stop when the kraft chemical-pulp process, which is by far the most widespread, is also carried out without chlorine chemicals. But even here - in spring 1990 - one Swedish manufacturer did stop for some of its coniferous kraft pulp, which is particularly dark and difficult to bleach. In strength, this pulp is comparable with the chlorine-bleached product. Only its brightness, at rather more than 70 ISO (see "Glossary") is somewhat lower. However, this is certainly good enough for all further applications. Other kraft chemical-pulp producers wish to follow this example in the near future. In Spain, too, a start has just been made with the completely chlorine free bleaching of kraft pulp derived from eucalyptus. A brightness of 80 ISO is being achieved. Pulps obtained using the recently developed methods (see above) can also be brought up to sufficient standards of brightness without resorting to chlorinated chemicals. Less or no bleaching whatsoever saves energy and wood Bleaching pulp to lower levels of brightness means pumping appreciably fewer organochlorine contaminants into the environment. Moreover, less bleaching equals lower energy and wood consumption and hence lower manufacturing costs for industry and less wastage of wood, the precious raw material. After all, about a tenth of all cellulose fibres are lost during the bleaching process: in other words, bleaching alone means that five out of every hundred trees are literally being poured down the drain. Moreover, manufacturing bleaching chemicals is expensive and requires large amounts of electrical energy. Using hydrogen peroxide, wood pulp is being bleached to a brightness of more than 80 ISO. Around half the world output of wood pulp is bleached. To process one tonne requires about 20 to 30 kilogrammes of hydrogen peroxide and 20 to 60 kilowatt hours of power. Sensible levels of whiteness: the key to avoiding organochlorine compounds No other colour stirs up such varied emotions as white. Through its associations with purity, clarity and brilliance all the way through to greyness it is all but worshipped. Herman Melville captures the essence in "Moby Dick" when he writes of the "... somewhat schematic intangibility within the deepest meaning of white [which] invokes a strangely uncanny feeling in the soul". First of all, then, we should remember that white is nothing more than a colour (or rather, to cite Melville again, it is the "visible absence of any colour and at the same time the sum of all colours"); in paper, its only function is to provide a contrasting background for what is written or printed on it. At present, kraft chemical pulp cannot be brought to extremely high levels of whiteness without the use of chlorine chemicals. However, a Swedish government study shows that there is not a single paper product which needs to be made of high-grade white, chlorine-bleached paper pulp in order to perform its function. The main function of chemical pulp, especially kraft pulp, is to make the product strong and, if necessary, age resistant. This does not necessitate bleaching with Chlorinated chemicals. For the few instances where the paper really does need to be particularly white, other raw materials with high levels of brightness (over 80 ISO) are available: chlorine-free pulp such as wood pulp and chlorine-free sulphite pulp; white minerals such as chalk and china clay for use as filters or coating agents (see "Glossary, page...). Summary Worldwide, the chemical-pulp sector is one of the largest industrial users of fresh water, including valuable ground and spring water, as well as a major source of water-polluting organic substances. Worldwide, of all industries the chemical-pulp sector is the prime discharger of ecologically hazardous organochlorine compounds into rivers, lakes and the sea as well as one of the chief sources of the most dangerous of these compounds - the dioxins. Organochlorine compounds pose the greatest ecological threat to rivers, lakes and the sea. The emission of organochlorine compounds by the chemical-pulp industry could be easily avoided if the strength of the kraft pulp were to be accepted as its main requirement and the brightness limited to a reasonable level. Necessary measures All chlorinated chemicals used in the bleaching of chemical pulp must be replaced. Discharges of organic substances must be minimised by modifying production processes and purifying all waste water biologically. The use of fresh water and energy must be brought down to a minimum by optimising water-cycle systems and waste-heat utilisation. Fresh water must only be taken from the surface. page 16 (Caption): Around 95% of the paper fibre is derived from wood. page 18 (Small caption): The main cause of the de-oxygenation of the river Elbe is untreated waste water discharged by chemical-pulp factories in the former GDR. page 19 (Caption): The kraft process involves the emission into the air of foul- smelling and noxious sulphur compounds. page 20 (Table): (Table): Manufacture and characteristics of various pulps (Omitted .. unscannable) page 22 (Caption): Lunar landscapes on earth: this was caused by chemical-pump bleaching near Wolfen in the former GDR. (Footnote): cf Env Sci Tech 18 (1984), p 236A-248A page 23 (Table): Areas affected by organic chlorine compounds Documented effects on areas within a marine ecosystem of organic chlorine compounds contained in waste bleaching water discharged from chemical-pulp plants. Example used: the kraft chemical-pulp factory located at Norrsund (Sweden), Gulf of Bothnia (Baltic). concentration in organisms health impairment of organisms ecological effects concentration in water concentration in sediment (Balance omitted) page 24 (Caption): Changes in the skeletons of fish exposed to waste water from chlorine bleaching plants page 26 (Caption): Particularly large quantities of organochlorine compounds are being discharged in waste bleaching water from chemical-pulp plants into North American inland and offshore waters. page 28 (Diagram): ...and yet it's still only the tip of the iceberg dioxins known organic chlorine compounds less well known or completely unknown organic chlorine compounds page 29 (Bar chart): Use of biochemicals in various bleaching processes for Scandinavian deciduous or coniferous kraft chemical pulps, All figures in kg per tonne of pulp factory A: further boiling and pre-bleaching with oxygen; deciduous wood factory B: conventional chlorine bleaching; coniferous wood chlorine; chlorine dioxide; sodium lye; oxygen page 30 (Caption): Bleaching the pulp without chlorine is just as good pages 32-33 (Map): Paper fibres for Europe - who manufactures and who uses them Canada United States Republic of Ireland United Kingdom France; Corsica Spain Portugal: Lisbon Norway Sweden: Gothenberg Denmark: Copenhagen The Netherlands Belgium: Brussels Luxembourg: ... Federal Republic of Germany: Munich Switzerland: Berne; Geneva Italy: Milan; Turin; Venice; Genoa; Rome; Sardinia Finland Poland:-Warsaw; Cracow Czechoslovakia: Prague Austria: Vienna Hungary Yugoslavia: Belgrade Albania: Tirana Soviet Union: Kiev; Lvov Romania: Bucharest Bulgaria: Sofia Turkey Greece Norwegian Sea [Eur. Nordmeer] North Sea English Channel Gulf of Biscay Mediterranean Sea German Bight Skagerrak Gulf of Bothnia Baltic Sea Lake of Ladoga Adriatic Sea Black Sea Rhine [Rhein] Danube [Donau] Vistula [Weichsel - PL] Warta [Warthe] Drava [Drau - YU] Sava [Save] Dvina [Duna - SU] Neman [Njemen] Pripet [Pripjet] Dnieper [Dnjepr] Dniester [Dnjestr] Black Sea Production and consumption of fresh fibres for paper, 1989 organochlorine emissions; 10 m tonnes/year main imports; main imports wood requirement for fibre production fresh-fibre consumption fibre output Non-utilised (non-recycled) quantities of waste paper yearly: this corresponds approximately to fresh-fibre consumption (right column) Organochlorine emissions (in 1000 t) Emissions of organic chlorine compounds into inland and offshore waters as a result of chemical-pulp bleaching (upwards of about 10 000 t/yr shown) 2 Shows only imports and exports above 500 000 t net. 3 For Canada and USA only net exports to Europe shown. 4 Data for former GDR and FRG combined under Federal Republic of Germany 5 Data shown refer to entire Soviet Union. Forest NB: This map does not show trade in and utilisation of USED PAPER for recycling. Sources: PPI 1990, OECD 1990, calculations by Greenpeace. 150 km Studio fur Landkartentechnik, Hamburg/Germany GREENPEACE map page 34 (Caption): Heading straight for the river Elbe: sewage channel from the chemical pulp production plant near Wolfen in the former GDR. [] TL: GREENPEACE SPECIAL: PAPER (GP) How paper damages the environment and what can be done about it. SO: Greenpeace International DT: 1990 Keywords: toxics paper production factsheets gp greenpeace groups solid waste / [part 3 of 3] III. From Pulp to Paper The fibres have now been isolated from the wood and need to be processed into flat, firm sheets of paper. This chapter is about how everyday paper products are manufactured and the role of chemical additives in this. It should be noted, though, that paper making is a highly involved topic, and it would go well beyond our present purpose to deal with every aspect of the various processes as well as their environmental impact. Close on half the pulp produced is used for manufacturing paper for writing and printing: this is then used for books, letters, direct mailshots, photocopying, newspapers, magazines. About 40% of the pulp is processed into packaging material, and this proportion could rise if synthetic materials are banned. New legislation to be introduced over the next few years in some US states will restrict the use of plastic packaging. There are similar moves afoot in Germany. Fast-food chains are therefore switching from plastic to throw-away paper packaging. But these measures will not stem the overall flow of packaging, plastic or paper. Use of sanitary paper products is also rising thanks to aggressive promotion and the opening up of new markets. These throw-away products cannot be recycled. Manufacturing paper - an ABC Following bleaching, a tenth of the world's pulp - especially chemical pulp - output is shipped to paper mills as market pulp. However, it is a lot cheaper to do this if the paper plant is integrated in the chemical-pulp factory, since the wet pulp can be pumped direct to the paper machine without needing prior drying. Many types of paper consist of a mixture of various fibres, eg they may be 75% wood pulp and 25% chemical or waste-paper pulp. When the pulps have arrived at the paper mill the most varied of chemicals are still to be added to them to give the paper the required characteristics. Hundreds of such chemicals and additives are currently commercially available for use by the paper industry. After these "fillers", other additives and a great deal of water have been added the pulp mixture is fed onto a flat screen, distributed, compressed and dried. A glossary of printing Anti-mucilage agents: These substances are introduced into the water cycle to prevent the formation of fungi and bacteria. The chemicals - bromide, chlorine, nitrogen and / or acetic-acid compounds are specifically used to kill off organisms, so they can be an important source of the pollution caused by waste water from paper mills. Not all that long ago PCP (pentachlorophenol), now banned in Germany, was being used for this purpose. This organochlorine compound often contains dioxin. In the interests of high-quality waste water, industry should only use agents which are degradable and not toxic to fish. Moreover, the use even of these agents should be kept to a minimum. Coating: Paper is coated to give it a smooth finish. The pigments used for this are basically the same as for the fillers, ie mainly lime and chalk. Coating pigments are frequently brighter than bleached chemical pulp. This means than the whiteness requirement for the chemical pulp can be reduced considerably, thus avoiding the chlorine bleaching process and its ecologically hazardous waste water. At the same time, coating the paper also protects it. Therefore, mechanical (wood- pulp) paper, which is sensitive to sunlight, does not yellow so strongly. On the other hand, though, coating agents often contain toxic heavy metals, as do the fillers. This can hamper paper recycling. Dust: Fibre dust can adversely affect printing machinery and photocopiers. Paper manufactured from wood pulp tends to create dust since its fibres are less pure and do not form such a stable network. One way of avoiding this on the finish, the paper's surface, is to glue the finish with gelatine, starch or latex. The problem of dust accumulation when the paper rolls are being cut is solved by attaching a suction-removal device to the cutting machine. Fillers: These are white minerals used to make the paper opaque, soft and white, but they have to be used prudently since their supply is limited. They include china clay (kaolin) and lime. These are natural substances and easy to obtain. Less frequently the expensive titanium dioxide is used. However, this requires a great deal to effort to obtain, and the necessary production processes give rise to toxic wastes such as [Dunnsaure], which in many places flows untreated into the sea. The fillers account for about a fifth of the costs of the pulp. 50% of the paper can consist of these fillers. Finish: An important characteristic required for printing paper is a smooth finish - ie surface. The smoother it is, the better the print quality. Mechanical wood pulp provides a smooth finish, and this can be improved still further by using mechanical smoothing or glazing machines - super calenders. Paper which has undergone this process is described as calendered or glazed. But the finish can also be improved by coating the paper (see "Coating"). Gluing: Cellulose is hygroscopic (ie it tends to absorb water from the air). To prevent uncoated paper doing this, starch is added to the pulp or the surface pores are closed with a mixture of pine resin (colophony) and aluminium salt. Gramme weight per m2: this unit measures the weight of one square metre of the paper (or a proportion thereof). So the thicker the paper and the lower its volume, the higher will be its gram me weight per m2. The range extends from Japanese vellum (10 g/m2), newsprint and magazine paper (40-60 g/m2), writing paper (70-80 g/m2) and art paper (about 100 g/m2) all the way across to cardboard (150-225 g/m2) and pasteboard (over 225 g/m2). Mechanical (or wood) pulp: This is pulp which still contains almost all its lignin. This includes waste paper, since it practically always consists of a mixture of chemical and mechanical pulp. New paper: Paper whose fibre constituent consists entirely or overwhelmingly of fresh fibres, ie chemical and mechanical pulp. Opacity: For most types of paper, translucence (semi- transparency) is not acceptable. The paper's opacity (ie not translucent) can be improved either by having thicker sheets or adding whitening pigments to the pulp (see "Fillers") or to the surface (see "Finish"). Optical brighteners: For some products, optical brighteners are added at the pulp or coating stage to make the paper whiter. These agents absorb invisible, short-wave white light and re- emit in the visible, violet blue part of the spectrum. However, in artificial light with no short waves the brighteners lose their effect. When exposed to sunlight, optically brightened paper yellows quicker. On balance these brighteners are useless. They end up among other types of paper for recycling, cannot be broken down in purification plants, are discharged into rivers and harm fish. The German government also recognises this and has called for these superfluous agents not to be used. Recycled paper: Paper whose fibre constituent is obtained entirely or overwhelmingly from waste paper. Strength and rigidity: These are highly important characteristics for printing and copying paper. The papers strength is determined by the type and proportion of chemical pulp used, while its rigidity depends primarily on the thickness of the sheet and the proportion of mechanical (wood) pulp used. Whiteness (brightness): The brightness of paper, chemical and mechanical (wood) pulp depends on the amount of light it re- emits. Since the human eye's impression of white light is mainly determined by the constituent in the visible blue part of the spectrum, the international unit of measurement is ISO values giving the percentage of this blue part. For example, 70 ISO equals 70% of the irradiated light re-emitted, ie reflected back). A central argument advanced by industry for continued chlorine bleaching is that printing paper has to be very white. However, it is also possible to carry out good-quality colour-process printing on moderately white paper. In special cases, subsequent coating can bring paper manufactured from chlorine-free chemical pulp up to a whiteness of almost 90 ISO. It is less of a strain to the human eye to read from less bright paper; in this respect, 75 ISO is better than 90 ISO or more. Yellowing: Exposure to sunlight turns mechanical (wood) pulp containing lignin yellow. There is little yellowing in wood-free or, more precisely, lignin-free chemical pulp, since bleaching removes all the lignin. Paper Products Writing and printing paper This is a very general term. It covers paper made of chemical and mechanical pulp and of waste paper (see Chapter IV) in all conceivable mixtures and proportions, coated and uncoated. We can subdivide into: Office papers Such as writing, copy and memo paper, notebooks, envelopes, computer and carbon and carbonless copy paper, fax paper, blotting paper... and many more. Copy paper: Photocopiers require paper with particular characteristics. It must be rigid and not too smooth. It also needs to be heat-resistant since the toner on the paper is set between 100 and 175 degrees Centigrade. Another important requirement is that the paper must not carry an electrostatic charge. Static can be prevented by adding simple table salt (sodium chloride). This is why photocopying paper also contains chlorine - but in its natural, mineral form, not to be confused with the toxic organic form arising during the chlorine bleaching process. Computer paper: All printers require low-dust paper with good tear resistance. In other respects, different printers have very different requirements: Laser printers operate in a similar manner to photocopiers and therefore need copy paper. Type-wheel and matrix printers apply the ink mechanically; they do not require special paper. Thermal printers need heat-resistant paper. Ink-jet printers need paper with good ink absorption to avoid smearing and smudging. Rough paper coated with fine silicon powder is therefore used. Self-copying (carbonless) paper: A growing market growing at a terrific pace. In the paper are tiny ink balls consisting of dyes with wax or highly volatile solvents. The pressure of a ball-point pen bursts these tiny balls of ink and releases the dye. Up to the start of the 1960s these types of paper contained highly toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). When they were mixed with other sorts of waste paper they posed major problems for the recycling plants. These self copying papers still cannot be recycled and so should not be mixed with other waste paper. Old-fashioned carbon paper is preferable. Fax and heat-resistant paper: Fax paper is coated with a layer of heat-resistant pigments. The precise composition has been declared a trade secret by the manufacturers. The various types of fax paper cannot be recycled either, so should not be mixed with other waste paper. In this sense, then, the dramatic increase in the number of fax machines and transmitted fax copies is a negative development for the environment. However, there are now faxes which can receive on normal, single-sheet copying paper. These machines are to be preferred. Apart from fax and carbonless, self-copying paper, all office papers can be manufactured from recycled paper. This should always be used (see Chapter IV). Bulk-printed paper Close on 85% of all the writing and printing paper used in 1989 came into this category. Newsprint: of the writing and printing papers, consumption of newsprint - ie the paper used for newspapers - is rising the fastest. Newsprint contains lignin, is uncoated, uncalendered and very thin (40-45 g/m2). Publishers and printers are mainly concerned with price. However, more recent methods in colour- process printing require paper of a higher quality. As a rule, North American newsprint contains from 10 to 15% kraft chemical pulp bleached with chlorine - however, the pulp is not bleached as white as market pulp. European newsprint is made of wood pulp, pure or mixed. It contains negligible quantities of unbleached sulphite chemical pulp, or consists of equal amounts of waste paper and wood pulp. German newsprint now contains up to two thirds recycled paper, and one French manufacturer even manages 95%. Newsprint production, then, is particularly safe from an environmental point of view. Newsprint also has applications other than newspapers, such as essential door-to- door circulars. It is easy to recycle since the fibres are relatively clean. This is because not many fillers or other chemicals are used. Magazine paper: This is used by illustrated magazines, periodicals and journals, catalogues, brochures, promotional material and other, similar types of printed matter. The quality range available encompasses printing papers with and without lignin, coated and uncoated. An important requirement is good printability (see below -"Printing Methods"). Book paper: Since high standards are required here in terms of non-ageing properties, wood-free paper is normally used. However, it is doubtful if such high requirements are always justified. Moreover, it is possible to prevent yellowing by coating paper which contains wood. Neutral gluing (ie without the addition of alum, which over the years releases acid) can protect books from "acid death". To reproduce images with fine dot definitions the paper has to be very smooth and the surface pores closed. These requirements are met by art paper. This type of paper comes with-or without wood content, and is coated. Since the early 1980s wood-free, coated paper has been increasing its market share rapidly, and continues to do so. Using this type of paper only makes sense if the product requires particularly good age-resistance properties, as do art or photographic books. The reality is, though (see the table below), that more than three-quarters of all wood-free, coated paper is used for some form of advertising. This promotional matter is thrown away shortly after use -if it is even looked at at all. Moreover, the advertising industry has been growing the fastest of all, while the market for books, the only justifiable application for this type of paper, is the slowest. Printing technology There are various methods of printing. The one used will depend on the size of the print run and other technical requirements. The two most important methods are offset and gravure. Offset printing: Sheet-feed offset printing is almost always used for paper sheets and, nowadays, books as well. In this method, an ink impression is made on an intermediate surface, such as a rubber blanket, which transfers it to the paper. The rubber blanket is highly adaptable to the unevenness of the paper's surface. This means that relatively raw types of paper without high levels of surface smoothness can also be imprinted. However, when the paper is being separated from the rubber blanket the surface must resist strong, vertical strains (picking or sizing strength). In the rotary or web offset method, both sides of the paper are printed simultaneously, which enables large quantities of paper to be dealt with. Since tensile strain is less than in the sheet-feed offset method, the surface of the paper used does not necessarily have to be glued. Light-weight, coated types of paper containing wood are used. Gravure: The gravure method, in which the printing ink is absorbed from "cells" at high speed, is appropriate for large print runs. It is now the most widespread mass-circulation printing method in Europe. The method requires paper with a very smooth finish (surface), which while being soft and supple must also be sufficiently tear resistant to withstand the mechanical stresses. LWC is also used here for especially high-quality reproductions. In recent years, "super-calendered" types of paper have taken the market by storm. In quality, these are only 5% below the LWC papers but 25% cheaper in price. Over the past two decades, the chief principle underlying use of the gravure method has been "whiter, broader and faster". In the 1960s, printing machinery speeds of 15 000 to 20 000 revolutions an hour were still regarded as maximum performance, and the cylinders for colour process printing were close on 1.30 metres wide. Now, rotary gravure presses with cylinders over 3 metres wide and performances of 50 000 revolutions per hour are in use. They can print products of 136 pages in one go at a rate of at least 12.5 metres a second. This philosophy of "big is beautiful" has resulted in ever tougher specifications for paper and the concomitant increases in environmental pollution. Board and wrapping paper In (west) Germany, as in many other countries, these products are largely recycled from waste paper. Despite this positive aspect, the packaging segment causes a host of environmental problems. Packaging material, like board or shopping bags, has to be firm and stiff. Therefore, kraft chemical pulp is frequently used. For example, cardboard cartons used for food have to be rigid while at the same time being more elastic than plastic over a wide temperature range. To prevent dampness or leaking, the container is waxed or coated with a plastic and / or aluminium film. Containers of this nature - used for milk, juice or as paper cups - cannot be recycled and are not biologically degradable. Polyethylene (PE) is often used as a synthetic coating and, more frequently still, polyvinylidene chloride (PVDC). This is a plastic containing a chlorine similar to polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and when incinerated containers coated with it can contribute to the formation of highly toxic dioxins. Wrapping paper sometimes consists unnecessarily of bleached chemical pulp, although it is stronger when unbleached. The finish of board made of unbleached chemical pulp can also have a thin coat of china clay added to it. The presence of such a coat can be easily ascertained by tearing the wrapping or rubbing away the finish. In package printing, products are being continually required to look better and better. Cosmetics products are the prime example, with several layers of printed wrapping and additional gold stamping (or blocking) and varnish. Cigarette packets are scarcely any less opulently finished. 100% odourless chemical pulp is demanded. Gravure is used for the wrapping and additional gold and varnish applied by the colour-process method. For a long time now, advertising and packaging the product have taken precedence over the safety of the product itself. After all, as US advertising professionals say, "the art of selling is in the packaging". Sanitary products These include household "tissue" products such as kitchen rolls, toilet paper, cosmetic pads and handkerchiefs as well as "fluffed" products such as babies' nappies (diapers) and sanitary towels. All these products have to be absorbent. Unbleached chemical pulps contain resinous acids and other wood constituents which partly impair fibre absorption capacity. Industry has continually used this fact to justify bleaching, especially chlorine bleaching. Suddenly, though, tissues made of unbleached chemical pulp have appeared on the German market. In general, it can be said that sufficient absorption capacity can also be achieved for all these products without using chlorine-bleached chemical pulp. The obvious agent to use for removing resinous acids is hydrogen peroxide. Special drying methods or "fluffing" can make the fibres even more absorptive. Dyes and optical brighteners are used for sanitary products as well. Even loo paper isn't spared! Readers can decide for themselves the sense or nonsense of this (see the "Glossary" entries on these items). These days, all tissue products could be manufactured from waste paper. If they were, the sanitary-products segment would make a significant contribution to reducing the mountains of rubbish emanating from the printing industry as well as cutting its wood and fibre requirement (see Chapter IV). The reality, though, is that tissue products are still overwhelmingly produced from coniferous, sulphite chemical pulp. "Wet strengthening agents" are used in kitchen rolls and cosmetic pads to stop the paper falling apart when it gets damp. Urea formaldehyde resins and Mel amine resins are used for this. The raw materials of these substances are a health risk and an environmental hazard. Babies' nappies (diapers): These are made of fluffed pulps which are soft and highly absorptive. Whiteness and strength are not important The new, super-soft nap pies contain polyacrylamide balls. When moisture is absorbed, these balls swell into a gel and remain in the interior of the nappy. The polyacrylamide material has encountered a lot of consumer resistance, and doubt still surrounds the long-term consequences for health. Since the discovery of dioxins in babies' nappies, almost only chlorine- free nappies are on sale in Sweden. 96% of all Swedish nappies are made of CTMP; the rest are from the multinational Proctor & Gamble and made of fluffed kraft chemical pulp for the European market. These are low in chlorine rather than chlorine free, having been bleached with chlorine dioxide. There are now nappies on sale in Europe made of completely chlorine-free, fluffed sulphite chemical pulp which is bleached and fluffed. Paper nappies also create a big refuse problem. In (west) Germany they account for 3% of domestic refuse. Moreover, seepage from waste-disposal sites - and hence the ground water - is contaminated by the viruses and bacteria which thrive in the faeces as well as the organochlorine compounds washed out of the chemical pulp. The latest attempts to make throw away nappies ecologically sound is to include biologically degradable plastic constituents in them or design them to compost down after the plastic has been separated off. But this does not solve the problem of seepage. The biologically degradable plastic is also the subject of controversy since the starch added to it to accelerate decomposition is obtained from grain or potatoes. This means that valuable foodstuffs are being used for the production of throw-away plastic articles while a large part of the world's population is suffering from malnutrition. Women's sanitary articles: The manufacture of these articles from chemical pulp is in a phase of dynamic growth. This segment comprises not only sanitary towels and tampons but also incontinence towels, pantie liners and various maternity items. Regular sanitary towels have the largest turnover of these products, while panties liners are the fastest-growing sector of the market. All women's sanitary articles can now be manufactured without chlorine-bleached fibres. However, the availability of the chlorine-free products is still limited. Almost all North American and Australian manufacturers are still using chlorine-bleached kraft or sulphite chemical pulp as a basis for the fluffed chemical pulp the products are actually manufactured from. Chlorine-free sanitary towels are now obtainable in Europe and Australia. Moreover, women can choose between perfumed and non-perfumed, deodorised and non-deodorised articles. But beware: the deodorising agents partly consist of organochlorine compounds intended to kill off bacteria and other microorganisms. Undesirable substances formed during chlorine bleaching are also used intentionally. Women should avoid these chlorine-bleached, deodorised and perfumed sanitary articles. , Tampons: Tampons first appeared on the market in the 1930s and promised women a "normal" life without "confusing wetness or odour". The product quickly cornered the market, even though the discovery of a possible link between using tampons and "toxic shock syndrome" - a sometimes fatal bacterial infection - could have spelt an end to their success. "Regular" tampons are made of cotton, "super" a mixture of cotton and the highly absorptive artificial silk Reyon. Reyon is almost always manufactured from intensively chlorine-bleached chemical pulp. It is then dissolved chemically and spun. The residual organochlorine compounds found in tampons induced several Swedish scientists to investigate the link between vaginal cancer and the use of tampons. Moreover, tampons dry out the vaginal wall and favour the development of ulcers. These phenomena have not been observed in women who use sanitary towels only. Dedicated paper Of all the different sorts of paper, at 10% a year the various dedicated papers are currently enjoying the fastest growth on the German market. Watercolour paper, cigarette paper, roofing felt, wallpaper; tea-bag paper and coffee filters; electrical-insulation paper and photographic paper: we're already using more dedicated paper than sanitary paper and almost as much as office paper. Products made of chemical pulp Chemical pulp not used for manufacturing paper is termed "regenerated cellulose". Some of this is subjected to a modified kraft or sulphite treatment and is then processed into Reyon (spun rayon, artificial silk), cellophane (sheet cellulose), cellulose acetate (for producing photographic film or acetate silk) and carboxymethyl cellulose (eg for food additives). Regenerated cellulose consists of very pure cellulose fibres. During its manufacture, all the lignin residues and other wood constituents are removed by intensive chlorine bleaching. Since spring 1990, the Norwegian firm Borregaard has been manufacturing the product without the aid of chlorine bleaching. The Austrian chemical-pulp firm Lenzing was planning to do the same by the end of 1990 / early 1991. The highest-quality chemical pulp is made out of cotton wastes (tinters). Most regenerated cellulose is chemically converted using the viscous Reyon method. It is then "regenerated" in sulphuric acid. This process yields either synthetic fibres (Reyon) or film (cellophane), depending on whether the chemically dissolved cellulose is pumped into the acid bath through fine jets or narrow slots. Finally, the design industry also has a whole host of applications for these products - superfluous as many of them are! For instance, spectacle frames are being made out of highly-chlorinated, bleached regenerated cellulose processed into colourless, super-transparent cellulose acetate. Surely a product with a slight yellow tinge but free of chlorine is preferable to this. Summary Paper is an everyday product. Without it, life as we know it would be inconceivable. To manufacture paper and other chemical-pulp products, hundreds of different chemicals are used. These include toxic substances which are not only difficult to break down but also superfluous. Paper manufacture consumes enormous quantities of water including valuable ground and spring water - and energy. Paper products and other chemical-pulp products are often manufactured to "look good" rather than according to environmentally safe criteria. The origin of many products is rooted in our throw-away mentality. We are storing up big problems for coming generations. Necessary measures Substances should only be allowed for manufacturing paper and other chemical-pulp products if they pose no health risks or environmental hazards, are essential to the functioning of-the products and do not hinder recycling. The paper industry's fresh-water and energy requirement should be kept to an absolute minimum by closing water cycles and re- using water as much as possible as well as fully utilising waste heat. Water must be taken only from surface reserves. page 36 (Caption): If we have to have new paper, then it should be made out of chlorine-free chemical pulp. page 39 (Bar chart): Paper consumption in (west) Germany Per capita paper consumption in kg % increase Mass printed paper excluding newsprint Newsprint Office paper Board and wrapping paper Sanitary products Dedicated paper Source:: VDP, 1990 page 41 (Pie chart): Use of wood-free, coated paper in western Europe Expected long-term yearly percentage growth in consumption 54%: Advertising matter 11%: Books 16%: Glossy magazines 19%: Other 5 Total growth Total growth in 1987 was around 2.8 million tonnes. page 46 (Diagram) (Omitted - unscannable) IV Fibre utilisation - rubbish or recycling -material? After the various paper products have been used by the consumer, one of two things can happen to their fibres: either they're "chucked away" and end up on a waste-disposal site or in an incinerator, or they're collected, re-pulped and processed back into paper. This "recycling" is a good way of keeping down the mountains of rubbish and the rate at which wood is consumed. Unfortunately, the first of these alternatives is the rule. Only a few countries have a sensible paper-recycling policy. Elsewhere, after having being obtained from wood at great cost and then serving their purpose in paper, most fibres then end up on rubbish tips. [Translator: next passage also caption on page 49] {An analogy serves to describe the paper industry very well: it is like a gigantic one way street. At the beginning, massive piles of wood stand next to damaged natural forests. At the end of the street is a huge mountain of paper rubbish. Every day it grows by almost half a million tonnes, and the people no longer what to do about it.) Reasons for recycling paper Things could be different. Most of the paper refuse mountain and much wood consumption could be avoided if, instead of building chemical and wood-pulp factories, we re-equipped existing mills to process and recycle waste paper. In (west) Germany much waste paper is collected after use. But even here the paper industry hasn't seen fit to install the capacity to process all of it. The absurd consequence is that while waste-paper traders are left sitting on stocks or have to export the used paper, manufacturers of the recycled products which do find their way on to the market can hardly keep up with demand. It is incomprehensible why the paper manufacturers do not exploit to the full the tremendous potential advantage of recycling. After all, they are not slow to exploit other market opportunities. The new manufacturing strategy would require plant to be adjusted to process as much used paper as possible. The dramatic problem of paper waste has elicited a response from the German government. In a list of measures it has issued for the reduction of waste levels, it calls on manufacturers to "increase substitution of primary by secondary fibres in all sectors of production". There is also a draft regulation to compel publishers and paper companies to accept the return of used newspapers, magazines and other printed matter. In short: the aim is to solve the problem of waste paper by recycling it into new products. [Translator: next passage also caption top left page 50) {Even though approaches like this are important and make sense--in themselves, it has to be stated candidly that despite increased recycling in recent years the amount of paper ending up on rubbish tips has also been rising constantly. The reason is the phenomenal increase in the sheer consumption of paper. Over the past 40 years it has increased almost sevenfold.} We won't get a grip on the refuse problem until we halt this rise in consumption. Moreover, we must use recycled paper products wherever possible. Although the German government's proposed measures address only the latter point - recycling - without also bringing down consumption we will not be able to stop the waste mountain increasing. Besides avoiding waste and conserving precious raw materials, there are a number of other reasons why we should be recycling more paper. According to the North American environmental organisation Earth Care, producing a tonne of paper from waste paper costs half as much in energy and water as making it from chemical pulp. It also creates 74% less air pollution, 34% less water pollution, conserves 17 trees and creates five more jobs. But despite all these benefits, recycling levels in most countries are low and could be clearly improved. The data for 1989 show that countries such as the United States and Canada, whose per capita incomes are the world's highest and third highest respectively, are rather more than 30% below the world average when it comes to recycling paper. Legislation has even been adopted to improve this situation and do something about the refuse problem. Countries such as Sweden and Germany are above the world recycling average at around 40%; the furthest forward are The Netherlands, Austria and Japan, who recycle around half their used paper. Investigators from the technical university at Lulea, Sweden, concluded that from the purely technical point of view around 75% of the paper we use can be saved and recycled into new products. How close the economics involved will allow us to approach this level will depend on the importance society and its political decision-makers attach to the environment as an irreplaceable good. In Germany, for instance, massive reserves of uncollected waste paper are lying around in offices :and households - at least two million tonnes in each category. Improved, government-supported collection systems could tap into most of this. The former GDR's system of secondary raw-material utilisation - now in a state of collapse - was an impressive illustration of what can be achieved when waste paper is recognised as a valuable commodity and the individual collector benefits financially. Here, in fact, the GDR had introduced a market principle which made it an international leader in recycling paper. However, recycling doesn't only mean collecting the paper. It also has to be re-utilised by the paper industry and the new products bought by consumers. The largest reserves of waste paper are to be found in the printing and writing paper segments of the market. If we could recycle these products, we could make a real dent in our consumption of fresh fibres. Unfortunately, it is precisely here that prejudice about the utility of recycled products is at its strongest. This, despite the fact that various types of recycled paper have shown themselves capable of performing virtually any office function required - including as copy and computer paper. In doing so, they point the way forward and indicate how, in the interests of the environment, it is perfectly possible to reduce to a sensible level our excessive demands for short-lived consumer goods. There are now some interesting initiatives being taken, for instance by German government offices in using recycled paper. But this whole approach must be stepped up on a massive scale. How recycled paper is made To make new paper out of old, the waste paper has to be pulped, which initially requires a great deal of water. Impurities such as staples and wire strapping are removed. Not only can the pulp obtained be immediately processed - without any further treatment being necessary - into packing paper, board, corrugated board and sanitary paper. It can also be used for printing and writing paper - "UWS paper". Recycled paper is the least environmentally damaging of all paper products. If high brightness requirements are to be imposed on the recycled product, the waste paper must first be "de-inked" in an ancillary chemical process. The ink is dissolved with soap and, if necessary, a bleaching agent is added. The ink is then forced to the surface by "flotation", ie blowing in air, and is removed from the surface as foam. If bleaching does. prove necessary for certain applications, no environmentally hazardous chlorine chemicals should be used. Hydrogen peroxide is a perfectly adequate substitute and is now widely used in Germany. It is easier to de-ink coated than uncoated paper. This is because the ink is on the surface of the coating and can be washed off along with it. However, coated paper gives rise to more sludge, which has to be disposed of as waste. Types of waste paper Waste paper as a recycling material can be divided into two categories. First, paper which has actually reached consumers (eg offices or households), been used and then collected by them ("post-consumer"). Second, spoil paper arising during the utilisation or printing of other paper on its way to the consumer ("pre-consumer"). While this spoil paper, which includes cutting waste or edge trimmings arising during printing, is always perfectly sorted and completely recycled, much of the paper used in offices and households (category one) ends up on rubbish tips. Newsprint contains a high proportion of fibre, which makes separate collection and recycling economically worthwhile. Some large European dailies are already 70% recycled. Waste board can also be easily recycled into new board. Waste office paper and copy paper, collected separately, can be made into new writing and copy paper. It is true that mixed types of waste paper can be processed into writing paper, egg boxes, insulation board or toilet paper. But: separate collection for different sorts of waste paper significantly improves the quality of this paper for recycling. And indeed the chief argument manufacturers advance for not recycling on a larger scale is the poor quality of mixed waste paper, especially that collected from households. Some types of paper are ill-suited or not at all appropriate to recycling. Fax or carbonless paper disrupt the recycling process, even if work is currently underway to develop appropriate de-inking processes for these sorts of paper. Paper containing plastic, such as milk cartons or window envelopes, cannot be recycled either, and highly inked paper poses problems. The less ink there is, the easier the paper is to recycle (and to process in the manufacturer's purification plant). Problems in paper recycling are avoidable Between 10% and 25% of the paper delivered to a paper mill is "lost" there. The shrinkage is mainly accounted for by fillers and coating agents, as well as small quantities of washed out inks and fibres which are too short. The most common coating agent, china clay (kaolin), can contain high quantities of toxic heavy metals such as lead or chromium, and the printing inks will have also retained isolated deposits of heavy metals such as cobalt, copper or zinc. As a rule, even though the heavy metals in the china clay are not separated out in sufficient quantity to pose an environmental risk, recycling used paper is not entirely without its problems. This is particularly the case when additional de-inking takes place. However, these difficulties have their origin before and not during the recycling process. Therefore, we should only be using coating agents and fillers which are free of heavy metals. We must also develop biologically degradable printing inks. Toxic organochlorine compounds - and in Sweden polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB)s - have been found in waste water from paper recycling mills. Many of the PCBs originated from used carbonless paper. In the early 1960s their manufacture involved the use of PCBs, and some of this paper is still ending up in collections for recycling. As we have seen, the other organochlorine compounds, including dioxins, are formed during the chlorine bleaching of chemical pulp, and these also wind up alongside the fibres in waste paper collections. Dioxins can also be introduced into waste paper in pentachlorophenol (PCP), banned in Germany but still used in France as an anti-mucilage agent. Generally speaking, all the above problems confronting paper recyclers are caused by contaminants already present in the waste paper when it enters the factory. These contaminants are introduced during the original processing of the wood and chemical pulp, the use of the various additives - depending on the paper's first application - and then the inks subsequently used. In this sense, therefore, paper recycling is a microcosm of the entire paper industry. As such, it should serve as an incentive for us not to allow the use of ecologically hazardous substances in pulp and paper in the first place. Progress could be achieved here by way of government regulation and through close cooperation between all interested parties - from the chemical-pulp and paper manufacturers to the ink producers and paper recyclers. The German government's draft proposals for the reduction of paper waste, mentioned elsewhere in this publication, look promising. For instance, the government calls upon manufacturers to discontinue the use of chlorine-bleached pulp, optical brighteners and other substances with similar environmentally harmful effects. It also seeks the cooperation of the printers in switching to inks free of toxic heavy metals so as not to prevent or disrupt recycling of the printed paper. Using recycled fibres sensibly If the ink isn't removed from printed paper, then recycling will result in grey paper. De-inking yields paper whose brightness is comparable with that of newsprint - "newsprint white". As a rule, though, the brighter the recycled paper needs to be, the more chemicals will have to be used. Moreover, recycling shortens the fibres somewhat, and the new product is not quite as strong as before. Chemical-pulp fibres can be recycled at least five times before they are no longer suitable, wood pulp fibres at least three times. Obviously, the loss in brightness and strength resulting from recycling means that products where these requirements are not so much to the fore will be particularly suitable, eg wrapping paper and board, toilet paper, note pads, writing paper and newsprint, office paper such as copy paper, continuous and laser printing paper as well as generally short-lived paper products. But magazines and journals produced with colour process printing can also be manufactured from recycled paper, and in future recycled paper will also be used for the very thin mass-printing papers - "SC" and "LWC". If particularly high standards of reproducibility, strength or age resistance are required, such as in art or photographic volumes or certain documents, the use of chemical pulp which has undergone chlorine-free bleaching makes the most sense. However, this is certainly not an argument for this fibre material to be the one most commonly used, as is still largely the case throughout the world. Summary The world's ecosystem is threatened with collapse because of the gigantic mountain of paper rubbish produced every year - the trend is upwards - because we consume too much paper and recycle too little of it. The environmental pollution caused by recycling paper is far lower than that arising from the manufacture of pulp from wood. All these hazards stem from the superfluous addition of contaminants during the manufacture, processing and printing of paper obtained from fresh fibres. Necessary measures We must stop most of the "rubbish mountain" arising in the first place. We must be thrifty with paper, collect and recycle as much of it as possible and use these recycled products to meet as much of our requirement as we can. We must avoid contaminating used paper with substances which disrupt recycling or release toxins during this process. Avoidance as far as possible of throw-away products, especially those which cannot be recycled such as milk cartons. We must set prices reflecting the ecological, and hence the true economic costs of the product. Products made of fresh fibres must therefore be made appreciably more expensive than recycled products to reflect this greater ecological and economic cost - the environment is not a "free good". page 49 (Caption - small) In Germany the share of recycled paper is already high, but it could be a lot higher. page 50 (Caption - small) If paper consumption isn't reduced we'll be dwarfed by own waste mountain. page 51 (Graph) Development of paper consumption in Germany from 1950 to today Total German consumption; per capita consumption in kg Source: VDP, 1990 page 52 (Bar chart) Paper consumption and collection of waste paper 1989 per capita consumption in kg; of which collected, per capita, in kg USSR, UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Austria, former GDR, (west) Germany, Switzerland, Japan, China, India, New Zealand, Australia, USA, Canada *Height of columns not in proportion page 53 (Bar chart) Paper consumption and waste-paper collection 1987 per capita in kg of which, per capita, collected as waste paper in kg EC, North America, Scandinavia, Asia, Latin America, Africa *Height of columns not in proportion page 54 (Caption) "Forests" of used paper in our cities - raw material for recycling page 55 (Diagram) The route taken by used paper Sources: domestic; paper-processing industry; allied trades; offices and administration Collection: illustrated periodicals, newspapers, catalogues: organised collections, containers; shavings and residues: compressed into bales at processing mill; mainly packing material: in bales and containers; writing and computing paper: in bales and containers Finally, all paper products must clearly display information about their composition and the manufacturing method used. Further Reading Cutting Down Canada (1990) Greenpeace Canada Vallely, B (1990) A Tissue of Lies, WEN, London Westoby, J (1989), Introduction to World Forestry, Basil Blackwell, Oxford Colchester, M, Marshall, G (1990) The Ecologist 20, pp 166-182 Muller, N and Soramaki, J (13.10.1989), Holz-Zentralblatt 123 Fries, C and Poore, M, publ (1985) The Ecological Effects of Eucalyptus, FAO Forestry Paper 59, FAO, Rome Yearbook of Forest Products (1988) FAO, Rome Papier '90, VDP (Verb and Deutscher Papierfabriken) Annual Review (7/1990) PPI (Pulp and Paper International) 32, pp 61-134 and p 142 Annual Review (7/1990) PPI (Pulp and Paper International) 32, pp 61-134 and p 142 PPI Capital Investment Service (1990) Miller Freeman Kroesa, R (1990) The Greenpeace Guide to Paper, Greenpeace Sodergren, A, publ (1989) Biological Effects of Bleached Pulp Mill Effluents, Naturvardsverket 3558, Solna-SWE Monitor 1988, Naturvardsverket, Solna-SWE Suss, H U et al (1989) Semibleaching of Kraft Pulp using Oxygen and Hydrogen Peroxide, Das Papier 43, pp 318-323 Kringstad, K P, Lindstrom, K (1984) spent Liquors from Pulp Bleaching, Env Sci Technol 18, 236A-248A Neilson, A H et al (1990) The Environmental Fate of Chlorophenolic Constituents of Bleachery Effluents, Tappi Journal, pp 239-247 Suntio, L R et al (1988) Chemicals Present in Pulp Mill Effluents, Chemosphere 17, pp 1249-1290 Suss, H U et al (1990) Approaches to Minimize the Formation of AOX in Kraft Pulp Bleaching, Das Papier 44, pp 339-348 Der Rat von Sachverstandigen fur Umweltfragen (1990)Sondergutachten Abfallwirtschaft Umweltfreundliche Beschaffung (1989) Umweltbundesamt, Bauverlag, Wiesbaden und Berlin, p 47-52 Penning, J (1987) Argumente zum Recycling-Papier, in: Papier & Umwelt, ARGE, Vienna Geschaftsbericht 1987 (and subsequent), BVP (Bundesverband Papierrohstoffe) Heinstein, F and Seeberger, J (1989) Untersuchung tea Altpapiermarktes und Verfolgung tea Schadstoffpfades bei der Altpapierverwertung, IFEU, Heidelberg