Big boost for our green economy
Paper is part of everyday life, and it’s a good thing for the environment
Books and newspapers. The box of teabags; the label on the coffee jar. Toilet paper and magazines. Paper is an extricable part of everyday life. According to the Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (Pamsa), paper is good for us, the economy and the environment.
Paper is versatile
Categorised into three principal types, paper is produced for printing and writing, packaging and tissue products. “I challenge anyone to think of a day in their life when they haven’t used at least one kind of paper,” remarks Jane Molony, Pamsa executive director.
Paper in its most common form — white copy paper — is a blank canvas, a new project or design, an author’s first manuscript. A variety of printing and writing papers help to communicate and inform through news and advertising, the medicine box insert and the month-end supermarket specials. Paper also educates, from a child’s first reader in grade one to their final matric exam.
Paper packages and protects: eggs and cereal boxes, milk and juice cartons, vitamins and cosmetics packets. And let’s not forget that box for new computer equipment for the office or an online shopping order.
Facial and toilet tissue, kitchen towel and baby and feminine products help to improve our lives through convenience and hygiene.
From a glossy magazine to a night at the movies with popcorn, a drink and a box of chocolates, paper entertains.
“Paper also helps us to unplug from our digital lives through journaling, scrapbooking and other paper crafts, or simply losing ourselves in a new novel,” says Molony.
Paper is renewable
In South Africa, paper is produced from farmed trees. About 600 million trees are grown over 762 000 hectares for making pulp and paper.
“If it wasn’t for commercially grown trees, our indigenous forests would have been eradicated years ago to meet our fibre, fuel and furniture needs,” explains Molony. “Sustainable commercial forests have a vital role to play in curbing deforestation and mitigating climate change.”
As with most agricultural crops, trees are planted in rotation. Once mature — after seven to 11 years — the trees are harvested. However, only 9% of the total plantation area is felled annually. New saplings are planted in the same year, at an average rate of 260 000 new trees per year, or one-and-a-half saplings per harvested tree. This is what makes the paper we source from wood renewable.
Paper is good for the environment
Working forests provide clean air, clean water and the managed conservation of wetlands, grasslands and biodiversity.
Farmed trees are efficient carbon sinks. Every year, South Africa’s commercial forests are estimated to capture 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, in turn releasing 15 million tonnes of life-giving oxygen (memory jog back to that primary school science lesson on photosynthesis).
The carbon remains locked up even after the wood is chipped, pulped and made into the many items we use every day. This is a good reason to recycle, as it keeps this carbon locked up for even longer. Sent to landfill, paper will naturally degrade along with wet waste and add to unnecessary emissions.
The local pulp and paper industry avoids 1.3 million tonnes of carbon emissions from fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) through the use of renewable biomass-based energy. Emissions are also offset by the trees grown for papermaking.
Paper is good for the economy
Not only does pulp and paper production add around R3.8-billion to the economy annually, the growing and harvesting of trees, the making of paper products and recycling them provides sustainable jobs for thousands of people.
There are also engineers and researchers who design advanced technologies and processes to make pulping, papermaking and paper recycling more energy and waterefficient, and the artisans and operators who keep paper production moving.
Add to this the downstream value chains that rely on paper to produce their products, including printing, publishing, marketing and advertising, and the many sectors that use paper-based packaging to protect goods during transit.
Paper is recyclable
Recovered paper — the paper and cardboard from our recycling bins — is a valuable raw material, and South Africa has been using it as an alternative fibre in papermaking since 1920.
Given that land suitable for the commercial growing of trees is limited, virgin fibre is supplemented with recovered paper. But an injection of virgin fibre is also needed in the papermaking process, because paper fibres shorten and weaken each time they are recycled.
In 2016, 68.4% of recoverable paper was recycled. Recoverable paper excludes the likes of books and archived records, and items that are contaminated or destroyed when used, such as tissue hygiene products and cigarette paper. South Africa’s paper recovery rate has increased by 2% year on year, and is well above the global average of 58% (2015).
One tonne of recycled paper saves three cubic metres of landfill space. The 1.4 million tonnes of recyclable paper and paper packaging diverted from landfill in 2016 is the equivalent in weight of 280 000 African elephants. The same volume would cover 254 soccer fields or fill 1 680 Olympic-sized swimming pools!
Transforming lives through recycling and training
Pamsa’s recycling arm, the Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (Prasa), has trained over 5 000 recycling collectors through the Entrepreneurship Training Course since 2010.
With funding from the Fibre Processing and Manufacturing Sector Education and Training Authority, Prasa’s four-day workshop has a practical approach to business basics, communication, elementary finance and research and planning.
“Any which way you look at it, paper, tissue and paper-based packaging is essential, and this is a good thing for our economy and for our environment,” says Molony. “Invented 2 000 years ago, paper is one of the oldest ‘technologies’ with research, development and innovation continuing the world over to make more efficient use of trees, recycled paper, water and energy. Paper is a great story.”
About Pamsa
Pamsa promotes the use of paper as a renewable and recyclable material for communication, packaging and a myriad of other applications. Representing more than 90% of paper, packaging and tissue manufacturers in South Africa, Pamsa has been actively advancing the “story of paper” since its foundation in 1992. Some of its members rank among the top 20 pulp producers in the world; the South African pulp and paper manufacturing sector is robust, well regulated and highly developed. With member companies continually striving to improve the way they do business, Pamsa supports their efforts by bringing them together on pre-competitive issues of mutual concern. These include education and training, energy production and use, water and waste, and research and development. www. thepaperstory.co.za
The Paper Recycling Association of South Africa (Prasa) is part of Pamsa and promotes a conscientious attitude towards paper recycling and efficient waste separation in businesses, homes and schools. By advocating for a culture of environmental and waste consciousness, millions of tonnes of recyclable paper are diverted from landfill. This supports job creation and local manufacturing, while making effective use of an alternative fibre in papermaking. South Africa is a water-scarce country with limited hectares of land available for timber plantations, which is why paper recycling has always been essential to ensure a sustainable local paper industry. www.recyclepaper.co.za