12 STORA ENSO ANDRITZ
Pulp Paper & Logistics
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revolutionise our societal approach to waste. Did you know that, with the plastics bottles we consume globally in a year we could build a tower to the moon? 25 times. And only a small percentage of plastics packaging is currently collected for recycling. European Bioplastics, a trade association, predicts that by just 2018, 6.8 million tonnes of bioplastics will be produced globally that are at least partly derived from plants. Admittedly, that’s against the 20 million tonnes of regular plastics currently converted into packaging each year in the EU alone – but it’s still huge growth in a short time frame. There are still technological and commercial barriers to widespread roll-out of some of these solutions. Arguably, we will also need social and attitudinal breakthroughs alongside these to make the switch to a more sustainable future. However, there are reasons to
July/August 2017
be optimistic. Many companies are actively looking for ways to introduce renewable materials into their products, packaging and supply chains. For example, renewable-non-renewable hybrid materials called bio-composites are being developed and could become a real game changer as a more sustainable option to 100 per cent fossil fuel-based plastics.
What’s the point? But what’s the point of all this? Fossil fuels are still cheap and plentiful. Surely it’s easier to keep doing things as we are by creating plastics and relying on carbon- intensive steel and concrete? The answer, aside from the fact that fossil fuels may not always be cheap and plentiful is of course the environment. Dependence on fossil fuels
is environmentally destructive in so many ways. Whether it’s the damage done during their extraction, the contribution to
global warming, or the mountains and oceans full of waste we are producing, few would agree that the status quo is the way to go. Trees, by contrast, improve our
environment and improve our wellbeing. They remove carbon and other greenhouse gases from the air and are completely biodegradable. You might think then, that cutting them down to use as materials is environmentally harmful. However, sustainable forestry takes a ‘cut one, plant two’ approach that can mean reforestation rather than deforestation. Moreover, younger, growing trees remove more carbon from the air than mature ones.
And of course, trees won’t run out – they’re a truly renewable resource.
So is it time to rethink wood as a material? Let’s stop limiting our imaginations to items we traditionally think of as wooden. After all, fossil fuels are biological
Wood for burning – what a waste!
matter – is it any wonder that we can create the same products from our forests given the right technological ingenuity? In many cases we can. In others, we are tantalisingly close. In all cases we should.
About Stora Enso
Sweden-based Stora Enso is a leading global provider of renewable products in the packaging, biomaterials, wooden structures and paper in global markets. With yearly sales of about €10 billion, its customers include publishers, retailers, brand owners, print and board producers, printing houses, merchants, converters and joineries and construction companies.
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