Environmental impact assessment and environmental auditing in the pulp and paper industry

“Dioxins are a group of toxic persistent organic chemicals that remain in the environment indefinitely. Dioxins are not deliberately produced, but are released into the environment as a result of combustion and other chemical processes. Human activities involving these processes include power generation and waste incineration, and the manufacture of metals and some chemicals. Some types of organochlorides have significant toxicity to plants or animals, including humans. Dioxins, produced when organic matter is burned in the presence of chlorine, and some insecticides such as DDT are persistent organic pollutants which pose dangers when they are released into the environment. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dioxins cause cancer in humans. Other sources are convinced it can cause learning disorders, decreased immune response and diabetes. It is interesting to note that the same chlorine issue is rampant when using virgin-fiber based toilet tissue.”

- Second hand toilet paper

| tags pollution | paper | 16 Mar 2009 | ∞ link comments (view)

Panafrican Paper Mills stops operations again

BRUSSELS, Feb. 13, 2009 (RISI) - Kenya’s Panafrican Paper Mills has been forced to shut down again due to unpaid utility bills.

This most recent shut, which labor representatives fear may be permanent until management issues are resolved, saw the firm’s electricity supplier, Kenya Power & Lighting, cut off its facilities due to unresolved credit problems.

A spokesman from the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU), the labor organization representing the mill’s workers, said that the unpaid utility bills were typical of the business, which has also consistently failed to pay its wood suppliers.

COTU is in talks with creditors and the Kenyan government, which holds a 34% stake in Panafrican Paper Mills, to change the management and credit structure of the company. The present management did not wish to comment on the talks or the shutdown.

The Webuye mill houses four machines, which can produce approximately 127,000 tonnes/yr of newsprint, kraft packaging papers, containerboard, and cartonboard.

According to COTU, Panafrican Paper Mills has a monopoly on paper production throughout east and central Africa. Kenya’s entire printing industry, as well as the economy of the city of Webuye, is totally dependent on its operations.

| tags kenya | pollution | 20 Feb 2009 | ∞ link comments (view)

054 pulp mill emissions, Yellowknife, Canada
“Most of the puffy clouds seen coming from this pulp mill in northern Alberta are steam…I think…I hope.”

| tags paper | pollution | 23 Oct 2008 | ∞ link comments (view)

HighBoldtage

Articles about Humboldt County - including lots about the Evergreen Pulp mill closure.

Pulp Truth

| tags paper | pollution | 21 Oct 2008 | ∞ link comments (view)

chrislang