Ten years ago SCA’s factory in Box Hill, Australia was using 70% more water per tonne of paper than today. In the last year, the tissue products factory saved more than 185 millions litres of fresh water.
In a country that is experiencing an ongoing drought, every litre saved counts to reduce the pressure on local water storages.
Water saving projects
There has been a lot of water saving projects undertaken over the past ten years that have resulted in the site using less water during the paper manufacturing process.
Reducing nozzle sizes on industrial shower heads, and using recovered water (water drained from the papermaking process) instead of fresh water are just some examples.
New challenge
Globally, SCA aims to reduce water consumption by 15 per cent between 2005 and 2010. But with that target already achieved at Box Hill, the site is now aiming for a 45 per cent reduction.
The paper machines utilise 80% of the site’s fresh water intake. Thus the majority of the water reduction projects have been focussed on the paper machines and will continue to do so even if water reduction projects from all areas of the site are considered to assist in further reduction. To see a further step change, wastewater treatment would need to be implemented.
Text Konstantin C Irina Source SCA Hygiene Australasia Update ( internal magazine) More information Melinda Tait ()