Water Consumption

How is water used in tissue making?

We reduced our water consumption by 23% in 4 years (2007-2010)

Pulp and paper manufacturing uses large quantities of water, but has relatively low water consumption. Industry studies historically show that on average 90% of the water intake is discharged as either non-contact cooling water or is treated process water subject to extensive regulation. Georgia-Pacific EMEA believes that water consumption is a better measure than water use, since the vast majority of water in pulp and paper production is returned.

Water consumption is the difference between water intake and water discharge (effluent that returns to rivers). It measures water loss due to evaporation and residual water in our finished products or waste. Georgia-Pacific EMEA intakes are 24.9 m3/tonne and effluents 20.4 m3/tonne, leading to 4.5 m3/tonne water consumption.

Georgia-Pacific EMEA has two main types of tissue production facilities: recycled fiber mills and virgin fiber mills. Both require water during the paper making process. While the majority of the water is recycled, some water loss occurs which needs to be compensated for with fresh water, which we extract from aquifers or rivers.

Our achievements

Georgia-Pacific EMEA is constantly improving its processes to reduce overall water consumption as well as water loss incurred during the production process.

Legal requirements focus on water effluent and GP EMEA has made significant progress in reducing its effluent per tonne of production. Since 2007, GP EMEA has achieved a reduction of 23% of its water effluent per tonne of tissue by working on process improvements.

Water use and consumption are issues driven by local drivers and the impact of water use and consumption differ by region. Water consumption is typically expected to be lower in mills where water scarcity, quality and/or regulations are higher due to local conditions.

GP EMEA aims to ensure that water quality discharged to rivers reaches high quality standards.

As a key metric we are looking at COD (Chemical Oxygen Demand), which represents the amount of oxygen required to break down residual contamination after the water is treated and discharged. Since 2007, by investing in filter systems, bio plants and purification efficiency GP EMEA manufacturing sites were able to reduce COD in water returned to rivers by 18%.

Some key projects instrumental to achieve these results

• Improving water purification efficiency to increase internal water recycling in our Bridgend (UK), Cuijk (the Netherlands) and Hondouville (France) mills decreased water consumption by respectively 58%, 29% and 10%, and COD by respectively 49%, 26% and 6%.
• In Allo (Spain), a new bioplant yielded a reduction of 18% in water consumption and 14% in COD.

Our commitment

In the coming years, Georgia-Pacific EMEA will continue to reduce water consumption in its tissue mills, as well as investing in biological wastewater treatment plants.