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No. 21 June 1999 News for All Interested in Featuring News, Analysis, Resources and Contacts |
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MillWatch table of contents
MillWatch No. 21 - June 1999
Unlocking The Secrets Of Peroxide Perfection
Commissioner Tells Ontario To Regulate Sludge Spreading
Strawberries With Sugar & Sludge
$22 Million Upgrade At Bowater Thunder Bay
Pollute Water For Free
Evergreen Wants PCF Paper
Back To The Old World For A New World Of Pulp And Paper
Bulk Office Paper Buying Club
MillWatch is sponsored by Reach for Unbleached! Canada to connect people and re-sources working on pulp and paper issues. Thanks this issue to Maureen Reilly, Ontario, Darlene Schanfald, Port Angeles WA, Sarah M. Vekasi, Olympia WA, Jon Stahl, Leggett CA, the Brainerd Foundation and our donors who fund this newsletter, and all those in communities working to help their mill clean up. Write to us!
A recent article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered an example of the rapidly advancing technology that will allow the pulp industry to meet stringent environmental standards in a cost effective manner.
Terry Collins, a chemist at Carnegie Mellon University, has found a way to improve the bleaching power of hydrogen peroxide. Collins' research team has developed catalysts that activate hydrogen peroxide and focus the reaction on particular targets.
One version of the catalyst would greatly improve the abilities of hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process at wood pulping mills, helping to eliminate the chlorine-based bleaches that result in the production ofdioxins and other organochlorines. Another catalyst might be used as a laundry bleach activator. Collins hopes the activated hydrogen peroxide might one day be used to purify drinking water, clean up toxic spills and improve any number of industrial processes that rely on oxidation.
Last year, Japan's Society of Pure and Applied Coordination Chemistry recognized Collins' achievement with its annual chemistry award. So far, Collins has been issued three patents, with a fourth on the way, and Carnegie Mellon is seeking sponsors for an Institute for Green Oxidation Chemistry to accelerate Collins' work.
Collins' team has designed a catalyst of abundant and safe iron encased in a ligand comprised of nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon. A ligand controls reactions by altering the electrical properties of the atoms it encases. The ligand itself may also interact with the hydrogen peroxide molecule in some way. This catalyst strips one oxygen atom from the peroxide molecule, making the highly reactive oxygen available to react with its target. Collins' ligand is designed to protect itself until there is no further bleaching to be done, and to then self destruct, preventing introduction to the environment.
To create strong, bright wood pulp, lignin must be removed from the wood. Historically, the methods to do this have focused on chlorine-based chemicals. But these agents also produce toxic by-products and a dark effluent that turns rivers the colour of Coca-Cola. Regulations around the world are pressuring mills to move away from chlorine gas and sodium hypochlorite. In British Columbia, all emissions of chlorinated wastes must be eliminated from liquid effluent by the year 2002.
The best environmental method to bleach pulp has been the subject of vigorous and sometimes acrimonious debate. Chlorine dioxide is one of the most developed alternatives, but it is expensive and requires careful handling. It also is corrosive, which would dash industry hopes to begin recycling effluent within three to five years, according to Richard Presley, an employee of Solvay Interox and recent Chairman of the TAPPI Bleaching Section. Ozone-, oxygen- and hydrogen peroxide-based processes are being used in advanced mills around the world. These methods continue to require bleaching at high temperatures and pressures. While clearly cost effective for greenfield mills, high initial capital investment has frightened off many North American mills.
Collins' process, by contrast, works at normal temperatures and pressures, is not corrosive, and requires no special handling. It requires no capital investment and could be implemented for $2 -to-$3 million per mill, Presley noted.
These developments indicate that we are closer than ever to reaching totally chlorine free, closed loop pulp mills and that governments should not retreat from the strong regulations that are driving these changes.
* Jay Ritchlin with sources from the Pittsburg Post-Gazette and conversation with Terry Collins.
In April Ontario's Environmental Commissioner, Eva Ligeti, revealed her annual report on the Environment in Ontario for 1998. The report is critical of the way the Ministry of Environment is treating pulp and paper mill wastes, from spreading paper mill sludge on agricultural land, to composting of paper sludge, and problems with Dombind, the spent pulping liquor that is used as a dust suppressant. The report makes strong recommendations for better management of these industrial wastes.
The pulp and paper waste practices criticized by the Ontario Commissioner also happen in British Columbia:
"We were members of a provincial committee on this issue for two years, asking over and over for testing," says Reach for Unbleached! Executive Director Delores Broten. "Last December the BC Ministry finally agreed to do some chemical analysis, and we found some independent scientists to help. Meanwhile the pulp workers' unions found information about toxic fungi in the sludge. Just at that point, the Council of Forest Industries walked out of the process. Now they are designing some sort of guidelines behind closed doors with the government."
A list of approvals and permits for pulp mill sludge spreading in British Columbia as of 1997 is available on our Monitoring Solid Wastes page.
The Ontario report notes that the EPA is considering the listing of paper mill sludges as hazardous waste, and that Ontarians have been complaining about the spreading of pulp and paper sludges for years: "The applicants cite concerns about the contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water, as well as impacts on livestock, wildlife and soil microorganisms. Many have also complained about odour, and symptoms such as headaches, burning eyes and breathing difficulties associated with freshly spread sludges." Copies are available by calling 1800 701-6454 or downloaded from the ECO website: http://www.eco.on.ca/english/publicat/ar98/part04.pdf
Domtar Cornwall claims to be successfully growing strawberries with pulp sludge. They maintain that the sludge has no problem with pathogens.
This contradicts reports I received from Domtar Research Office which demonstrate that Domtar sludge, after two months, contains 390,000 total coli-forms, about 30 times more contamination than manure after the same waiting period. Indeed, as time passes, Domtar research indicates that the level of total coliforms increases significantly, from 6000 clu/g to 390,000 in two months. Fecal streptococcus was found in the paper mill sludge at 32,000 clu/g even after 2 months, but not in manure in any quantity.
In a study for Domtar Cornwall by Darius McKnight of Kemptville College on the feasability of feeding paper sludge to cattle, (sic) the sludge was tested for fungus and microbes. Here's what they found according to Table Two: [ measurements in clu/g]
| In sludge @ 2 months | In manure @ 2 months | |
| Yeast | 2,800,000 | 4,100 |
| Mold | 90,000 | 1,000 |
| Salmonella | nondetect | nondetect |
| Klebsiella | nondetect | |
| Total coliforms | 390,000 | 13,400 |
| Fecal coliforms | 30 | 9,000 |
| Fecal streptococcus | 32,000 | nondetect |
Where are these 'toilet' contaminants coming from? My suspicion is that the toilets at the mill empty into the waste water treatment facility and then contaminents thrive and multiply in the warm sludge. Most Ministry documents do not require paper sludge to be tested for these pathogens because they assume that paper sludge does not have the pathogenic content of sewage sludge, so they don't test.
Do we want to be kneeling in fecal streptococcus when picking strawberries? Is it what you want to eat when eating strawberries? After sludge application in Ontario, there is a supposed to be a one year waiting period before fruit can be picked, according to the Guidelines for the Use of Bio-solids and other Wastes on Agricultural Land. What farmer will forgo a year's harvest for the privilege of using industrial waste on his or her fields?
These stories must be reviewed more critically before they are fed to the public.
* Maureen Reilly, Rural researcher, Kirk-field, Ont
The upgrade to the recycling plant will allow it to meet increased demands for newsprint with a high recycled material content. The company hasn't yet calculated what the upgrade will save in energy costs - recycled fibre uses less energy during processing than virgin fibre. The mill produces more than 540,000 tonnes of newsprint annually.
* Victoria Times Colonist, March 1999
Ontario's Environment Ministry has almost stopped prosecuting water polluters. The Sierra Legal Defense Fund learned that only three of the 134 companies and sewage plants that broke pollution laws in 1996 have been successfully taken to court.
Evidence suggests that the province no longer intends to prosecute environmental criminals: the Ministry's budget has been cut by about 45 percent since 1995; the province no longer makes public a list of prosecutions and reports on waste water offences; the fines for the three convicted companies were minimal; and the 1996 figures are the latest available.
* The Globe and Mail, March 1999
Sarah Vekasi of Students for Chlorine Free Paper at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington says they had to be "as persistent as dioxin," but after four years of trench work in committees, experimentation and public education, Evergreen has a Chlorine-Free and post-consumer -recycled paper policy. The only glitch is, the college can't find a paper to buy, even with a 10% price premium.
During the fall of 1998 Evergreen hosted a Chlorine-Free Campus Clinic through the Evergreen Environmental Resource Center and the Campus Ecology program from the National Wildlife Federation. The clinic helped students from colleges throughout Oregon and Washington learn about issues with chlorine and how to change campus procurement policies.
The same group of students and staff went on to write and pass a purchasing policy for Evergreen this past fall. A review committee was established which includes students, faculty and all of the major paper providers on campus.
Thus far, however, no paper has been tested because the paper industry isn't ready to produce an economically viable and environmentally sensitive paper yet. The new paper purchasing policy allows for a 10% increase in paper cost, but the chlorine free options that are available are still not affordable. It is unfortunate that Evergreen cannot switch papers immediately, but by implementing a progressive purchasing policy, Evergreen helps manufacturers know that there is a market for more environmentally sensitive papers at an institutional level.
* Call Bill Gilbreath at (204)866-6000 ext. 6847, gilbreaw@elwha.evergreen.edu or Sarah Vekasi at (204)352-4196, vekasis@elwha.evergreen.edu
"Half of all trees harvested are chipped up for the pulp mills. Half of all landfills are composed of paper products. The purpose of the Alternative Fiber Pulp Mill is to begin producing pulp for paper from the whole stalks of hemp, flax, and agricultural waste, using no wood products at all ..." Thus begins the strong environmen-tal pitch of John Stahl, founder of Earth Pulp and Paper.
Earth Pulp and Paper, founded in 1994, plans to set up an Alternative Fiber Pulp Mill on a commercial scale to manufacture pulp for paper from the whole stalks (not just the outer, bast fibre) of such fibre plants as hemp, flax, kenaf, cereal straws, and other materials, which are abundant, cheap, and of high potential for paper-making. Stahl has considerable experience making paper with a wide variety of alternative (non-wood) fibres. He acquired the rights to the pulping technology in 1994, and has funded and supervised the development of the engineering work. He claims he is now ready for construction of the mill.
The New World Pulper uses a pulping process based on work by V.S. Krotov of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Kiev, Ukraine. The alcohol, ammonium and sulphur dioxide pulping process utilizes a novel drip percolation system. Krotov's initial experiments were done on aspen and can be applied to wood based pulping as well as non-wood fibres. This method promises a highly efficient, very clean, closed loop process for pulping the whole stalks of annual plants. The design's high level of process integration provides a better and higher yield at less cost, with greatly reduced usage of water and power, and no toxic waste. The final pulp is very high brightness with low lignin and is thus easily brightened with hydrogen peroxide, eliminating the need for chlorine-based chemicals. Process chemicals are recycled and the removed lignins and sugars result in market products rather than toxic sludge.
If this device works as promised, it will provide an opportunity for a major reorientation of the pulp and paper industry away from the dependence upon trees, and towards a greater utilization of annual plants and crop residues. It also offers remaining wood based producers the opportunity to increase pulp yields and move more quickly towards totally chlorine free, closed loop pulp mills.
Earth Pulp and Paper plans to set up a 15 tons per day pilot project, probably in Canada, using both flax and hemp. Start-up costs are approximately US$2 million for construction, with administrative, legal and contingency costs resulting in total capital requirements of around US$5 million They expect the low cost of raw materials, the low operating costs, and the high market value of "tree-free" pulp and paper to lead to excellent profits.
The proposed mill, while small, would be ideal for building and operating close to fibre sources and would have the potential for expansion. However, small mills may have many environmental and social benefits. Transporting finished pulp to a paper mill is more economical because density and value of the pulp are increased compared to the original fibre. Also, locally owned operated mills can provide economic stability to communities.
Another advantage of the New World Pulper is that hemp fibre need not be retted and decorticated; it may be chipped whole and fed directly into the process, which saves considerable labor and cost, and allows hemp to be cultivated primarily as a seed crop.
The promises of Earth Pulp and Paper are enticing: "We will be recycling and utilizing materials which are now burned or discarded, and these materials will typically contain about double the cellulose of wood products with far less lignin, making the processing easier and cleaner without the use of chlorine bleach or other toxic materials, and with no toxic sludge diverted into our water supply. The pulp and paper industry is already under considerable pressure to conform with ever stricter environmental standards, and many mills are electing to simply close their doors rather than deal with the expense of upgrading their old facilities ... If we are able to produce pulp cleanly and efficiently, there will be no reason for governments to relax their demands, and our technology will inherit the industry."
Let's hope they can deliver. Contact John Stahl at Earth Pulp & Paper, PO Box 64, Leggett, CA, 95585 , tree@tree.org
* Reviewed by Jay Ritchlin
Reach for Unbleached! and Paper Choice will place the sixth bulk order of chlorine free, recycled office paper on October 1 1999.
The Paper: Rolland New Life Dual Purpose
80% recycled content with 60% post consumer
80% Processed Chlorine Free (PCF) & 20% Totally Chlorine Free (TCF)
Excellent copy and printer paper
The Price: $58.25/ case of 8.5 x 11 (plus GST, PST, freight)
Minimum order one box (5000 sheets)
Payment must be made in advance to Reach for Unbleached!
Why a Bulk Buying Club? The price of environmentally sound paper has been a barrier to its success on the market. The goals of the Buying Club are threefold:
Lower the price of the paper
Prove to manufacturers that a market exists
Encourage BC mills to make this type of paper
Be a part of this innovative club and place your order soon! For more info, phone/fax: (250)935-6992 or dbroten@rfu.org