Sustainability Activities, continued

Paperlinx - A Sustainable Fibre Supply

Through its Australian Paper manufacturing companies, PaperlinX uses fibre from a wide range of sources to supply the needs of both the high-quality copying and printing market and packaging paper market, including waste paper, plantation fibre, imported fibre and sawmilling residues from native regrowth forests.

In total, around 56 per cent of PaperlinX's fibre demands are met by waste paper and sustainably-managed Australian plantations. The remaining 44 per cent comes from international sources and sawmilling residues from native regrowth forests.

PaperlinX uses waste from the sawmilling industry, including defective logs unsuitable for sawmilling, thinnings and offcuts to make paper. If this waste was not used within Australia, it would either be sold to overseas companies (who would then make paper out of it) or be burnt or left to rot. Using it to supply a valuable Australian industry is clearly a better course of action.

When PaperlinX buys pulp internationally, it does its best to ensure that it buys from reputable companies with sound environmental credentials.

Paperlinx - Minimising the Impact of Bleaching

Wood fibre is naturally brown - only bleaching can make it white. While many products made from PaperlinX paper grades do not need to be made from bleached paper - such as cardboard boxes and paper bags - consumers demand whiteness in some products, especially office and writing papers.

This means that some products must be bleached. However, PaperlinX has taken steps to minimise the environmental impact of the bleaching process. In the past, most paper bleaching has been done with compounds containing chlorine; however, since concerns have been raised over the potential environmental damage from poor bleaching processes and poorly-treated effluent, many paper companies have found ways of reducing chlorine use.

For example, supplementary bleaching chemicals such as oxygen, ozone and hydrogen peroxide can be used. Some pulp is bleached without using any chlorine compounds (TCF or Totally Chlorine Free) while other pulp is produced using compounds such as chlorine dioxide (ECF or Elemental Chlorine Free).No elemental chlorine is used at Burnie, Wesley Vale and Shoalhaven, while PaperlinX's Maryvale mill uses only a small amount of chlorine in its bleaching processes.

Thanks to new bleaching and waste treatment technologies and techniques, there are no detectable dioxins in the discharge at any of PaperlinX's four paper mills. PaperlinX's performance in this area is far better than the levels required by the Commonwealth Government's guidelines for new mills.

All PaperlinX mills are accredited to ISO14001 environmental standards, which means they must meet strict requirements for monitoring, management and continual improvement of environmental performance.

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