Moving towards `green' chemistry

Papermakers and chemical suppliers have been obliged to meet increasingly stringent environmental standards in recent years. Regulators continue to impose ever-tightening conditions on mill effluent. The issue however, is how much further can the industry go, and how they can still produce paper in a cost effective way. Until papermakers can think of a way to make huge quantities of paper without using large quantities of water, they will need to meet ever-tightening restrictions on effluent discharged into rivers, lakes and ocean.