Balance work and environmental protection Copy paper can also be very low carbon?

With the development of China's economy, the degree of office automation has been continuously improved. Almost every company will be equipped with copying and printing equipment. The demand for copy paper is continuously rising and it has already topped the list of consumables. When the concept of environmental protection has been deeply rooted in people's hearts and has become a lifestyle, many people have extended their environmental protection vision to the office.

Office paper into an environmental focus

Ms. Sun, who works at a Beijing branch of one of the world's top 500 energy companies, came to the company as usual. At a distance of 5 meters from her desk is a copy and copy machine, which is almost as busy as her. “At present, the company has about 400 employees. There are 10 photocopiers in operation every day. Although we have saved as much as possible, we need to use at least 200 packs of A4 copy paper every month.” “Using copy paper is a work requirement, which cannot be avoided. I And colleagues have always wanted to find a balance between work and environmental protection, but it is difficult." Miss Sun reluctantly said.

According to the "China Paper Industry Report" of the China Pulp and Paper Association in recent years, China's paper industry has developed rapidly in recent years, with annual output of 94.89 million tons and consumption of more than 90 million tons, ranking first in the world. The annual production volume and consumption of uncoated printing and writing paper (including copy paper) have been increasing year by year, and the average annual growth of consumption from 2000 to 2008 has reached 9.92%. The 2008 report showed that the consumption of uncoated printing and writing paper reached 13.58 million tons, of which the copy paper consumption was nearly 800,000 tons.

Half of the production companies are difficult to achieve

Water is one of the energy sources that paper must consume. The water consumption per ton of paper has always been an important criterion for assessing its environmental protection. Prior to July 2009, China's production water consumption standard for pulp was 60 tons of water per ton of paper. Starting in July 2009, the water consumption of standard paper per ton was reduced to 20 tons. However, according to industry sources, more than half of Chinese paper companies have not reached this standard. “As far as I know, most papermaking companies in the country are currently very difficult to meet this standard. Only a few large-scale paper-making companies can meet the standards, and generally they can reach 7-12 tons.”

Calculate the amount of water by 20 tons per ton of water in China: Take the most commonly used 70G copy paper as an example. The most commonly used A4 copy paper in an office needs about 0.07 liters of water. In other words, every use of a pack of 500 A4 copy papers consumes 35 litres of water. Miss Sun's company "copy" at least 7,000 liters of water a month. Water consumption is only a part of papermaking. There are countless companies that need to use print and copy materials every day. One can imagine how much energy each office paper will consume and how much CO2 it emits.

How to copy paper from "low-carbon"?

"In fact, copy paper does not produce pollution in the production process. Copy paper production companies only buy some raw materials from paper mills and do some cutting and other processing technologies. The real pollution and energy consumption still come from manufacturers who provide copy paper materials." Xu Weidong, general manager of Investment Co., Ltd., honestly stated that as a senior paper industry insider, he has always been concerned about the environmental protection issues of the paper industry. “In the paper industry, generally speaking, if the raw material source of paper products is low-carbon and environmentally friendly, basically we can think of this paper product as an environmentally friendly product.”

In China, the paper industry has always been tagged with high pollution and high energy consumption. In particular, some small papermaking companies are often more polluted in the production process because of the backward equipment and technology and limited funds. Nowadays, copy paper companies mostly process raw materials purchased from paper mills. Only some companies with large machines can use their original copy paper production.

As office essentials, copy paper cannot be replaced. We can only find the breakthrough point of energy conservation and environmental protection in copy paper itself. According to the experience of foreign advanced paper-making companies, as long as they check from the source, in fact, copy paper can also be "born from low-carbon."

100-year forest industry brings experience

In China, the paper industry is often affixed with black labels that “destroy forest”, “high energy consumption” and “high pollution” due to three basic links: wood source, energy, and water. The paper industry has become a “bad boy” of environmental protection. . However, as one of the countries with the highest forest coverage and the most beautiful environment in the world, Finland has also been a major country in the world of papermaking. Moreover, forest coverage and forest stockpiles in Finland have risen steadily over the past 100 years. The paper industry is called the forest industry in Finland. The "green road" they have come up with is worth our careful consideration. Let us take a look at how UPM, Finland's largest papermaker, has achieved "low carbon papermaking."

Ten years ago, UPM entered China and built the UPM Changshu paper mill to produce printing and office papers in the Taihu Lake basin of the Yangtze River. While introducing advanced production equipment and technologies, they also brought to China a century-long environmental protection concept in Finland. . As a large-scale papermaking enterprise that can provide raw materials for its own copy paper, all product pulps including its “Jinyin” copy papers are all derived from sustainably managed woodlands, and the so-called sustainable management of woodlands is the use of science. Methodologies for the rational use and development of forest resources while meeting the sustainable economic, social and environmental development. Through this method, the balance between harvesting and planting can be effectively achieved, forest environment and biodiversity can be protected, and the health and vitality of the forest can be maintained.

In terms of energy saving and consumption reduction, UPM produces 60% of the energy needed to produce copy paper from renewable energy sources. The amount of carbon dioxide emitted from the production of 500 copies of “Jay India” copy paper is no more than a few kilometers more than ordinary passenger cars. In the ten years since it was established in 1990, the UPM Group's CO2 emissions per ton of paper have been reduced by 40%. Its "Jade India" series of copy paper products consume only 5 tons of water per ton of paper, only one-quarter of the national standard, and it is the lowest in the industry, and it is close to the best level in Europe. If all copy paper companies in China can achieve the "good print" per ton of water consumption standards, then China can save 12 million tons of water at least one year.

"From the point of view of the entire life cycle of the product, our paper from the source of raw materials, production, transportation, distribution, recycling, each step is infiltrated with this factor." UPM official paper product manager Zheng Guohua said. "Low carbon" is not an illusory concept in UPM, but it is actually done from the whole process of making copy paper.