Thai Forest Certification System submitted for assessment

Sonoco has upgraded its Hartsville wastewater treatment site to significantly reduce carbon emissions. The company began treating wastewater from its paper operations in the 1950’s and in 1987, an anaerobic lagoon was added to improve the system’s efficiency. Anaerobic wastewater treatment is a highly efficient treatment process that uses less energy and produces less sludge than conventional aerobic treatment. The organic matter in the wastewater is converted to carbon dioxide and methane. In addition to the anaerobic treatment, a cover on the lagoon had been capturing the gases and routing them to a flare for destruction. In partnership with renewable natural gas developer GreenGasUSA, new biogas equipment now converts any gaseous methane to pipeline quality renewable natural gas for use in homes and businesses using the existing interstate pipeline system. It’s expected to reduce Sonoco’s greenhouse gas emissions by 8,000 metric tons per year and provide renewable energy to South Carolina.

CarbonCO officially relaunched the initiative yesterday (10 December) in partnership with international conservation charity World Land Trust (WLT). Carbon Balanced Paper balances the carbon impact of the paper that printers, paper-makers and distributors use through the work undertaken by WLT. As part of its activities, WLT has identified areas of forest that, through protection and reforestation projects, can offer opportunities for specific carbon balancing programmes. Carbon is offset through the purchase and preservation of ecologically important forestry under imminent threat of clearance, which then locks carbon that would otherwise be released.

The American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) President and CEO Heidi Brock and American Wood Council (AWC) President and CEO Jackson Morrill released the following statement regarding today’s DC Circuit Court’s decision on Boiler MACT. “We are pleased the Court affirmed EPA’s (and our) position that the already stringent air pollution limits for industrial boilers satisfy the requirements of the Clean Air Act. The forest products industry has invested roughly a billion dollars to reduce boiler emissions and welcomes the regulatory certainty to make sustainable forest products in the U.S. while supporting high paying manufacturing jobs. In addition, we welcome the Court’s common sense decision instructing EPA to only apply recently tightened new source limits to boilers built after 2020. This will provide mills with the information needed to comply when installing new boilers.”