Paper Mills: Effects on the Environment

Paper Mills: Effects on the Environment

“High water consumption is a major environmental problem that the pulp and paper industry is facing” (Chen).The truth is that a paper mill is one of the most polluted institutes in the worldwide. The process of making paper demands an enormous amount of water being wasted which is contaminated by different types of toxics. However, the question is: How bad are the chemicals that are releasing from paper mills affecting the environment?

Different paper mills process the paper in such a manner that it can surely develop the haphazard gases that are really harmful for the environment. Befouling is one of the processes that are used in order to make the recycle of paper possible (Rahall). It tends to generate the different chemical reactions that are not effective for the environment hence the air pollution can be generated. There are many advanced schemes developed and these are based on the composition of bacteria’s that are more used in order to recycle the paper. Along with it, one of the issues that are generated by the paper mill is the uses high quantity of water and in this way the water is wasted in a bad a manner (Rahall).

In the production of papers there are different colloidal materials and substances required to be eliminated from the water in order to reuse water and for this concern the technology of ultra-filtration are generated and may lead to establish the effective working for the paper mill. However, in order to make this process possible, high technique is required to be used and in case the technology fails then it might result in the wastage of resources to the wide extend.  Paper mills are grabbing the current market as there is high demand of paper and it may lead to generate to further paper mills (Chen).

            As stated in the Economist article, “Pulp and paper is a big energy consumer- the world’s fifth-largest industrial user put the industry’s carbon dioxide emissions at about 500m tones worldwide in 2005.” The production of paper and pulp does result in the emissions of carbon dioxide gas which is dangerous for the environment and health. It has been proven beyond any doubt that very high concentration of the atmospheric carbon dioxide can cause an excessive amount in the blood (www.epa.gov). This issue can result in acidosis which is a serious and sometimes fatal condition in humans and cause headaches, nausea, and visual disturbances. The paper residue in making combines an effect and reprocessing lessens this impact, but not the ecological and financial impact of the energy spent by industrial, or shipping paper products (www.epa.gov).

In the 21st century, the world population growth is observed and it can be widely stated that the acceleration in the paper mill’s working and process are encouraged due to the growth in economy. Carbon emissions results in creating the environmental issues and this may lead to make complication for the people health. The carbon emissions results in developing fatal diseases and it can be said that this way the paper mills are becoming really dangerous and chronic for the environment as the processes used in the paper mill are those which create environmental pollution and it might result to affect the health of people negatively (Chen).

The toxics that are from the paper mill affect the water ponds and destroy the plants and marine life, as most of the gases emission in the air and this can greatly affect the air pollution along with the life of animals, plants and human beings. “So far, tests near the mill’s sludge ponds and waste ponds and wastewater ponds have shown significant traces of dioxins, furans, and other chemical byproducts of its paper-bleaching processes. The testing also found traces of arsenic and other toxic heavy metals” (Chen).  The arsenic in the water is very likely to be responsible for cancer in the kidney, skin, bladder, and lungs. The side effects include other skin changes such as thickening and pigmentation (Milferstedt).  Paper mill affects the human health, kills the plants, and the animals that live in sea level.  According to the “Recession’s Green Lining” article, during the Cold War, the largest Paper Mill in New Jersey called Siberia’s Lake Baikal, had released a ton of dreadful smell in the air from all the bad chemicals such as chlorides and phenols. The chemicals that were built up had caused an issue to the environment (Milferstedt). “The pollution killed plants, crabs, and fish and threatened the world’s only freshwater seal, the earless nipa”. Since 1964, environmentalists tried to close down that paper mills down, but were not successful (Milferstedt).

However, the failure of the greens causes the global recession to be successful. As the environmentalists tried to improve the global recession, factories were in crisis of being shut down due to pollution standards (Milferstedt). Most of the paper is generated by using the bacterial material and this might result in affecting the health of workers in the paper mills. Considering this ideology most of the complicated cases observed and many vast paper mills were winded up in order to secure the life of workers working in the different paper mills. Closing the factories, not only does not help the global recession, but also due to the reduction of papers, reduces the supply and increase the demand which at the end cause inflation that will be another problem for the government (Milferstedt). In order to keep the balance between production and pollution, the government imposes special taxes on the factories that release carbon dioxide to provide the funding source to clean up the environment.

 The processes in the paper mill have a lot of hazard to the environment. Due to effect of the environment people working in this mills are seriously suffer from very dangerous diseases. The most significant disease it this respect is lungs cancer. The worker of the pulp and paper mills suffers from this disease (Milferstedt). Worker exposed to chlorine compound sees to run the increase of the risk of the lungs cancers. “There is also an increased risk for malignant lymphomas among the pulp and paper mills workers” (Knell). This was indicated from common exposure. Common exposure includes the wood dust, trepans, preservative present in the wood.

             These mills are now working to recycle the white water so that it can decrease the “Fresh water uptake and satisfy tightened discharge standard” (Chen). In this recycling process there is a lot of bacteria and canton dioxide that is produced which can affect the environment (www.epa.gov). Working in pulp and paper mills produced lot of pollution which is very harmful for the human being.

            Due to working in the pulp and paper mills, the air pollution is increasing day by day and which can cause a dangerous disease for human beings. This pollution badly affects the human health, the worker of the mills, and other people near this mill are suffering from these diseases. “The working in this pulp and paper mill causes heart disease, lungs cancer, other very dangerous disease and because in the pulp and paper mills have high polluted martial are used which are harmful for human beings” (www.epa.gov).  Also, malignant lymphomas are a serious risk that can be caused from the paper mill.

Paper mills are in fact polluting the air and contaminating the water reservoirs, while also killing fish and other marine life. Since life is dependent on air and water to survive, therefore, the first priority should be to ensure that these mills should adopt alternate method of production, and get certification from the environmental departments that these paper mills are no longer a threat to the environment (Rahall). It is the era of scientific revolution where many ways are being developed by scientists through which the environmental sustainability is made possible.

Furthermore by considering the current environmental impacts of paper mills it is recommended to develop the alternative ways that can surely protect the environment from the haphazard gases and the chemical water that is extracted to the streams and lakes could be restricted as this results in reducing the fish species in the as they are becoming died (Rahall). The water is required to be used in the more effective way and it can be said that the more effective ways adopted by the paper mills the more environmental safety would be possible.

            Overall, it is stated that by considering the different scenarios and the working level of the paper mills and industry most of the organizations are taking the serious steps in order to secure the environment from the complication that could be raised by the extract of paper mills. And the effective schemes generated by the government would likely to reduce the issues of environmental haphazard that are probably the result of these paper mills and the alternative ways are required to be generated (Rahall).

Work Cited:

Chen, Chen. "Application of Ultrafiltration in a Paper Mill: Process Water Reuse and Membrane Fouling Analysis." Bio Resources 10.2 (2015): 2376-2391.

Rahall, Ulf. "Bacterial community diversity in paper mills processing recycled paper." Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology 37.10 (2010): 1061-1069.

Milferstedt, K... "Heterogeneity and spatial distribution of bacterial background      

            Contamination in pulp and process water of a paper mill." Journal of industrial microbiology & biotechnology 39.12 (2012): 1751-1759.

"Rule and Implementation Information for Pulp and Paper Production MACT (40 CFR 63, Subpart S) | Technology Transfer Network Air Technical Web Site | US EPA." US Environmental Protection Agency. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2015.