A Cleaner Production Project in the South African Paper Industry – Lessons learnt Iain Kerr, MSc (Env. Biotech.) University of KwaZulu Natal, School of Chemical Engineering, South Africa.

 Cleaner production (CP) is a general term used to describe a preventative approach to industrial activity  It encompasses:  waste minimisation,  waste avoidance, and  pollution prevention.  A lot of emphasis is placed on attitude change  CP is an important approach to reducing environmental impacts, and leading business and industry in the direction of sustainable development.

In Production Processes:  conservation of raw materials and energy  elimination of the use of toxic raw materials  reducing the quantity and toxicity of all emissions and wastes before they leave a process In Products :  reducing negative impacts along the life cycle of a product, from raw material extraction to its ultimate disposal In Services :  incorporation of environmental concerns in the design and delivery of services.

Techniques of Cleaner Production

Approach Table 1: The Six Stages of Cleaner Production Implementation(UNEP,1998) Stage Number Stage Description Activities 1Planning and organization Gaining commitment, selection of teams, identification of barriers and drivers and determining the scope to save. 2Pre-assessment Collection of overall information for the site, development of process maps, identification of focus areas, and determination of missing information. 3Detailed assessment Collection of data on focus areas, mass balancing, monitoring and targeting. 4Identification of opportunities Determining options for improvement based on gathered data. 5Feasibility analysis Determining which options are feasible on a technical, economic and environmental basis. 6Implementation Planning to implement feasible options and setting monitoring system in place.

 Employees were given training in each of the stages  The planning and organizing stage (Stage 1) involved selecting teams, once management commitment had been given.  The teams went through the process of identifying barriers and drivers as well as determining scope to save.  The pre-assessment stage involved  obtaining an overview of the operations of the site;  preparation of process maps;  identification of sources of waste and obtaining an indication of the true cost of waste.  The outcome of the pre-assessment stage is a selection of focus areas for further in-depth analysis based on either cost, potential to save, or environmental implications.

The waste cost iceberg showing the hidden costs of waste (Enviroserv, 2000)

 The pre-assessment phase scoping audit (Stage 2) undertaken at the mill identified packaging as the area with the highest cost saving potential  The savings potential was in excess of R50 million per annum.  A Pareto diagram was used to identify which packaging raw materials were the highest cost items for the finishing house

Reel Wrapping

Finishing House Packaging Material Pareto

 The scoping audit identified inputs in the finishing house such as boxes, lids, pallets, cores, glue, and reel wrap as areas for potential waste reduction and significant savings  A live audit was thereafter conducted at the finishing house  The audit took place when the finishing house was operating under normal conditions  The audit protocol was determined in consultation with the finishing house manager and staff employed in that section

 Waste bins were placed at the various sections of the finishing plant to collect all the waste generated at specific points  The bins were clearly marked and weighed in order to ascertain the wastage quantity in that category  Damaged pallets were stacked separately and quantified  Glue wastage was calculated by weighing samples of ream wrapping, lids and bases with and without glue  The total amount of waste generated over this period was determined and converted into financial terms by taking into account the cost of the raw material and the cost of added value

 It became clear from the live audit that the area on which to focus the teams efforts was the “last on core” (or slab), the cores and the ream and reel wrappers  Slab is the paper product that remains behind on the reel after the reel has been unwound for converting into final product Slab  The total cost of waste for these materials was almost R18 million rand per annum  Some of these wastes such as slab are recycled internally and this waste stream made up 69% of the major waste streams identified at the finishing house.

Waste Stream% Contribution to Cost of Waste ‘Last on core’ or slab69.3% Cores12.6%. Ream wrapping8.7% Reel wrapping6.2% Lids, bases, pallets and glue3.2%.

 When considering solid waste generated by a factory, the obvious data to look at initially is the volume of solid waste that leaves the factory site, for disposal  Internal recycle streams such as the slab (or broke), which is repulped and reconverted into paper product on the paper machine, was the most significant waste stream  This waste is not accounted for in solid waste records  This internal recycle results in additional energy, water and raw material inputs which all contribute to the real cost of waste.  In this case, this amounted to some R13 million per annum.  Only by conducting a live audit at the finishing house was this fact highlighted

Any questions? Thank you for your attention. Iain Kerr, MSc (Env. Biotech.) University of KwaZulu Natal, School of Chemical Engineering, South Africa. Iain Kerr, MSc (Env. Biotech.) University of KwaZulu Natal, School of Chemical Engineering, South Africa.