Miljøprojekt, 1057 – Miljømæssige forhold ved genanvendelse af papir og pap

Miljømæssige forhold ved genanvendelse af papir og pap

Summary and conclusions

The aim of the project is to update the environmental part of the former evaluation regarding “Environmental economy of paper and board cycling” (Danish Environmental Protection Agency, 1995). In result this update will evaluate the possibility and benefit in Denmark of collecting paper for recycling or waste incineration in terms of environment and resources. The environmental evaluation include specific Danish conditions for paper collection, paper recycling and waste incineration compared with the conditions in the reference situation in 2001 in terms of changes.

The former project was subject to an external quality control which caused a number of points of criticism. These points of criticism have been evaluated in this project and on the basis of this a number of modifications have been made compared with the former data collection (Please see Chapter 1).

In the project a number of scenarios have been presented in order to increase or decrease collection of paper and board for reuse based on the material flow of paper and board in 2001.

Scenarios for the following three type of papers:

News papers and weekly magazines
Corrugated board
Mixed paper (including higher qualities)

For all three types of papers an estimation of 100 per cent recycling and 100 per cent waste incineration per kg collected paper is made to illustrate the environmental difference of recycling a kg paper more or less compared with the estimate in 2001. Furthermore a reference scenario is presented (initial scenario in 2001) and four development scenarios for the total Danish paper consumption within the three different types of paper.

The four development scenarios show the following situations:

Increased collection and increased recycling in Danish paper or board factories using waste paper or board.
Reduced collection and reduced recycling in Denmark
Increased collection and increased export, but unchanged production in Danish factories
Reduced collection and reduced export, but unchanged production in Danish factories

The project is based on the production in four Danish factories using waste paper, including:

Brødrene Hartmann A/S, Tønder producing packaging and moulded fibre products made out of waste paper. The waste paper is categorized under “news papers and weekly magazines”, and the yearly (2001) production output is about 42,000 tons of end products.
Skjern Papirfabrik A/S producing among others packaging tubes, toilet paper rolls and heavy board out of waste paper. The waste paper is categorized under “newspapers and weekly magazines”, “corrugated board”, and “mixed paper”. The yearly (2001) production output is about 50,000 tons of end products.
SCA Packaging Djursland A/S producing liner and fluting out of waste paper. The waste paper is categorized under ”corrugated board” and ”mixed paper” and the yearly (2001) production output is 190,000 tons of end products.
Dalum Papir A/S producing recycled fine paper in the factory in Dalum close to Odense. The recycled paper is mostly made on the basis of recycled pulp manufactured at another factory in Maglemølle near Næstved. The waste paper is categorized under ”mixed paper” and the yearly (2001) production output is about 66,000 tons of end products.

The former study was a life cycle assessment (LCA). The environmental assessment was based on energy consumption and listing of a few numbers of emissions. The former study was made under the present code of practice for LCA. The updated study is made according to the principles of life cycle assessments since then described in the UMIP-methodology and in the ISO standards 14040 – 43. For purposes of comparison the former study is made on study results to explain the differences in the new and the former study. A number of essential principles set up in the former study are still in force and from comparison between the new and the former study with regard to a scenario with the same recovery rate no deviation has been found that could not be explained due to the new data, fx electricity.

Calculations have been made based on two fundamentally different future scenarios:

Future scenario 1:
The volume of wood is unlimited during the time of the study. The volume of wood which is saved during the paper recycling is not utilized, but remain in the wood
Future scenario 2:
The volume of wood is limited. Use of wood in making paper is the reason why a corresponding amount of wood is not used to fx energy purposes else where. It is considered that use of wood causes a corresponding consumption of fossil fuel for energy purposes.

Finally, in continuation of future scenario 1 cost/benefit estimates have been made on the cost differences whether recycling and incineration are in proper relation to the environmental differences. There are not the same social costs related to recycling paper as the case is with waste incinerating the paper. The decision on increasing, keeping or reducing recycling of paper is to a large extent environmentally founded and it should be considered if a bigger environmental profit can be gained in another way using less money. Stating the importance of the cost/benefit estimates a third scenario is made. In this scenario the society uses the volume of wood which is saved for energy purposes as it is presumed that the social costs is the same as for waste incinerating the paper as for use of the volume of wood for producing paper.

Based on the assumption that all scenarios use the so called marginal energy and co-produced heat. Marginal energy is the energy production that is most sensitive to changes in the energy consumption. This type of energy is the type of energy that in the end will be affected and it is assumed that it is natural gas (combined cycle).

In recycling it is presumed that you avoid production of a similar amount of primary material. This is often the case in markets with increasing demand (for recycled and primary material) which has proved to be the case of paper. The recycled material might be of the same quality as the original primary products or another type of product, fx used news papers which are made into moulded fibre packaging (e.g. egg trays).

Specific data have been collected from the paper recycling factories which are affected directly by increased or reduced recycling. It has not been possible to find out which primary paper factories that are affected by increased or reduced recycling and it has also not been possible to have any data from these factories. That is why the data from the primary paper production is set up as good as possible out of the data in the public domain from trade associations, e.g. Skogsindustrierna in Sweden and EMAS.reports from paper factories.

Data on consumption of materials, energy consumption, emissions into air, emissions into water and produced waste have been collected.

The environmental impacts have been assessed: Greenhouse effect, acidification, nutrient enrichment and photochemical ozone formation. The assessed resources are: Natural gas, crude oil and hard coal. Furthermore, volume waste, slags/ashes and dangerous waste are included.

Toxic effects might be significant, but are left out because as it has been impracticable to collect sufficient precise data for the toxic emissions.

The below figures show as an example the results calculated for Mixed paper at 100 per cent recycling or waste incineration.

The first group of figures show the environmental consequences per kg of the mixed paper fraction assuming that the volume of wood in the future is unlimited (Future scenario 1). The other group of figures show the environmental consequences per kg of the mixed paper fraction assuming that the volume of wood in the future is limited (Future scenario 2).

Click here to see the figure.

If wood in the future is an unlimited resource waste incineration of paper will cause the biggest primary energy consumption and create the biggest amounts of waste. In connection with energy related environmental effects and resources the differences are depending on the utilization of incineration plants. In the reference scenario both heat and electricity are produced and in this case the incineration and recycling are equal in connection with energy related environmental effects and incineration has an advantage in connection with resource consumption as wood is not included. If only heat is produced or the combustion capacity released by recycling is utilized for waste incineration of other waste (what likely is the case) recycling is obvious most advantageous with regard to energy related environmental effects and the picture is almost equal with regard to resource consumption.

If wood in the future is a limited resource the results clearly show that recycling is better in all ways from an environmental point of view. Due to the growing interest in CO₂ neutral fuel and a growing demand for fuel in general and exhausted oil reserves there is a probability that wood might be a limited resource.

Under the advantageous condition with regard to incineration that wood is an unlimited resource in the future, incineration and recycling of paper might under certain circumstances be equal because advantages and disadvantages will vary to both sides depending on the environmental parameter and type of paper you refer to. It is unlikely that the conditions for incineration are applicable and under the most advantageous conditions for incineration it is most applicable that recycling will be an environmental benefit. Under the advantageous condition with regard to recycling that wood in the future is a limited resource, recycling is under all conditions an environmental benefit.

Finally it is discussed from a cost/benefit point of view that the economical differences between recycling and incineration will change radically in favour of recycling when the costs of CO₂ emissions are seen in the society. This will increase the incentive to recycle paper and utilization of wood as fuel.