Tissue World Magazine
Alexandra Stuthridge, Technical Business Manager, BioProducts Institute (BPI)

Resolute Forest Products and EDT have won sustainability awards at this year’s Tissue World New Orleans exhibition.

Resolute Forest Products’ Atlas Paper Holdings tissue site has won the Most Energy-Aware Mill Award category – the first award of its kind for the tissue industry, and launched in partnership with Tissue World magazine.

Energy accounts for 23% of the company’s paper production costs and its focus on improving energy efficiency and replacing high-emission fuels like coal with less carbon-intensive fuels is to benefit both the environment and the company’s bottom line.

It has invested in clean energy projects, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as power costs.

Its Hialeah, Miami-based tissue facility – acquired as part of Atlas Paper Holdings in November 2015 – is a Green Seal-certified operation and has been producing 100% recycled fibre products using a chlorine-free process since it was established in 1976.

The facility is currently transitioning from using recycled paper as an input to recycled bleached kraft (RBK) pulp produced at Resolute’s Fairmont (West Virginia) pulp mill, which is FSC chain-of-custody certified.

A 2016 internal analysis by Resolute evaluated environmental performance improvements. The preliminary results are: An increased yield from fibre inputs – from an average of 67% to 94%; decreased downtime caused by wash felts and wires due to stickies from an average of three hours a month to zero; reduced energy use by approximately 20% as a result of bypassing onsite de-inking process; reduced residual waste by 67.5% from an average of four trucks per day to 1.3 trucks per day; reduced chemical defoamer usage by over 30%.

In 2016, Resolute plans to integrate the Hialeah facility and the other Atlas Paper operations into Resolute’s corporate energy efficiency and GHG reduction initiatives, which it said will likely lead to further successes and demonstrate the company’s dedication to energy awareness and continuous improvement.

Tissue World New Orleans’ second winner is Enzymatic Deinking Technologies (EDT) which claimed the trade show’s prestigious “Most Sustainable Exhibitor” award.

The company has repeatedly made a series of sustainability efforts to ensure its booth is as environmentally-friendly as possible.

Judges said its efforts for this year’s show were “modular and re-usable – EDT uses its booth construction materials for every Tissue World”.

The company also combines shipment of its booth with a large shipment to reduce its carbon footprint; it purchases local products for its construction; it combines its North American sales meeting with Tissue World to save on 15 airline tickets; it appointed an operations manager to look after Health and Safety and he coordinates the build-up and dismantling and all the company’s staff are involved in this process; it always uses suppliers that adhere to high-level ethical standards.

EDT sells natural, fermented enzymatic products that are not petroleum-based to highlight the message of value performance and improving the environment. Reducing energy use and the carbon footprint of papermaking is central to its value delivery.

Judges said: “Products typically reduce paper drying energy consumption by 5-10% and those products also have a recycled fibre impact allowing mills to re-use fibres more often which reduces landfill.

“Finally, its technology improves the fibre yield and recycled producers can make tonnes of paper with less impact on trees.

“EDT’s booth has a very natural, outdoor look to it with scenic pictures and plants to help communicate the message of being a non-oil-based technology.”