4 - Friday, October 19, 1990 - North Shore News

Clean solutions for chlorine

New technology can make mills environmentally safer

THE 23,000 people employed in the pulp and paper in- dustry in B.C. support families totalling well over 100,000 people, and those families :upport businesses which in turn support at least that many people again.

How do we treat our environ- ment and future generations with care while at the same time preserving the livelihood of in- dustry workers and their families? Can we have a healthy environ- ment anda healthy economy?

Fortunately there are solutions to the serious ecological and health challenges facing the pulp mill industry.

The answers to the dilemma of pulp mill effluents fall into two categories: technical solutions and consumer solutions. The problem is straightforward, even if the solutions are not.

Dioxins, furans, and the whole family of organchlorines are bio- logical poisons, some extreme, some less so. They are created when chlorine, used to bleach the pulp, combines with organic molecules.

The technical solutions have to do with alternative bleaching pro- cesses. First among these alter- natives is the use of oxygen in place of chlorine to remove lignin from the wood fibre.

Lignin is a natural chemical adhesive that binds the fibres together, and it is responsible for the yellow color of aging paper.

Chlorine has been used tradi- tionally for removal of lignin, called delignification, because it is the most efficient, disregarding of course the negative environmental

effects.

Oxygen delignification systems already exist, and could be install- ed in any mill.

The cost of such instalation would represent a sound capital investment because oxygen systems are less expensive to operate, and the organic discharge can be recycled to produce energy for the mill. This would also be a step toward chlorine-free bleaching, the inevitable direction of worldwide industry.

The one drawback of oxygen systems is that oxygen reacts less selectively than chlorine, and can weaken the Cibre itself and thus the strength of the paper. Therefore in some cases oxygen delignification would not be, in itself, enough, but there are other steps.

Extended cooking and washing of the pulp before the bleaching process are two means of remov- ing lignin and organic materials from the pulp. This reduces the need for subsequent bleaching.

After extended cooking, washing, and oxygen delignifica- tion, if some bleaching is still re- quired, hydrogen peroxide is probably the most environmental- ly benign bleaching agent because it breaks down into oxygen and water. Ozone and sodium hydrosulfite are also effective bleaching agents.

Reguiar to $695°°

from

Rex Weyler

THE GOOD EARTH

Finally among the technical solutions is the simplest of all: tess bleaching or no bleaching at all.

Less bleaching requires less energy and thus lowers the cost as well as the toxic effluents. Fur- thermore, since about 10 per cent of the fibre is lost during bleaching, no bleaching at all makes more paper with less trees.

This solution is intimately con- nected to the consumer solutions of demand. The industry makes paper white because they believe that is what the consumer wants.

In some cases this may be true and even legitimate. Fine, white coated paper serves certain func- tions such as for use in art reproductions.

However, in most cases the

whileness serves no function whatsoever. There is no practical purpose for white coffee filters, Pure white notepads, or white toilet paper. It is only that final touch of white that requires chlo- rine bleach.

Consumers will play an impor- tant role in turning the pulp in- dustry around by demanding en- vironmentally safe products, par- ticularly non-bleached paper pro- ducts.

The public will be doing themselves a tremendous favor as well, because bleached paper pro- ducts such as milk cartons and coffee filters have traces or organchlorines in them, a severe health hazard.

Industry may be slow to take the lead because they are com- peting in world markets, and in the age of free trade, any country that is willing to destroy its en- vironment for short-term econom- ic leverage will be a pressure on its competition to do the same. The public and government need to step in and demand environmen- tally safe products and production methods.

Where government repre- sentatives are dependent on in- dustry support, they cannot be counted on to lead the way either, and thus the burden falls on the public to install governments that will protect their health, and to support companies that show a willingness to consider en- vironmental and health concerns. The solutions exist.

94997 SPORTSCOATS

Railway asked to reduce noise

NORTH VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL

NORTH VANCOUVER City Council has passed a motion call- ing for the Canadian National Railway (CNR) to reduce noise along the North Vancouver City waterfront.

According to the Oct. 15 mo- tion, the CNR will be asked:

*to construct a shed to house idl- ing locomotives;

*and to conduct research into the development or acquisition of quieter locomotives and equip- ment.

The motion also requested the CNR to review the company’s Operating procedures in its Lynn Creek yard so that: ethe coupling speeds of railway cars do no exceed four miles per hour;

*railcars would be pushed rather than rolled for coupling;

‘trains crews accelerate and decelerate trains as smoothly and gradually as possible;

eand a quiet period be estab- lished from 10 p.m. to midnight.

City staff was also asked to study and comment on the possi- bility of erecting a five to. six- metre high barrier to block noise filtering into residential areas from the train switching yard.

According to a Sept. 19 report from the city Noise Control Committee chaired by Ald. John Braithwaite, the proposed locomotive shed design would cover five tracks and enclose an 80-foot by 240-foot area.

The report states that the ‘‘bar- rier provides a barely perceptible change in sound levels, whereas the shed reduces the subjective sound level by half.’’

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922-2018