Abstract
A pulp and paper mill is a factory producing organic chemicals. It starts with biological materials, trees, and processes them into woodfibre — in a form which can be exported as rolled-up strips of solid pulp, or its byproduct, paper. Along the way, organic materials are inevitably wasted and lost — these include beneficial nutrients, dangerously changed hydrocarbons (chlorinated), and smothering woodfibre (Fig. 5.1). The wastes also include a mix of toxic chemicals used in the pulping and paper-making processes, such as chlorine and zinc. Finally, there are natural inorganic toxins wasted — different trees have bioaccumulated different trace metals from their ecosystem as they grew.
“… the wastes from a pulp and paper mill have a triple whammy for the environment. They can poison; they can suffocate; and they can enrich. They also grow up crops of bacteria, and they smell horrible — both the liquid effluent and stack gases.”
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Ellis, D. (1989). Organic Chemicals, Pulp and Paper — Annat Point (Scotland). In: Environments at Risk. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74772-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74772-4_5
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