Responsibility

Water is essential in pulp and paper production and is also needed for cooling machinery. UPM uses water in production as a diluting agent and transport medium. Fibres, fillers and additives have to be strongly diluted in order to form a smooth sheet of high quality paper. Compounds from wood fibres dissolve during manufacturing, and a small proportion of the chemicals and other raw materials used in the process remain in the water.

UPM circulates water several times in the production process and only a small portion of the water used in pulp and paper production leaves the process as effluent and has to be replaced with fresh water. As our cooling water is not contaminated at all, we can release it directly into watercourses. We use a small quantity of water for steam production at the power plants and purify it in order to meet stringent purity requirements.

ALL OUR WASTE WATER IS TREATED

UPM treats all waste water in primary and secondary effluent treatment plants before we release it into watercourses. The biological treatment stage is an efficient way to remove dissolved organic contaminants and nutrients from waste water. Most of our mills have their own effluent treatment plants. Some mills have their waste water treated at a municipal effluent treatment plant.

UPM and relevant authorities regularly monitor and review emission levels in watercourses into which waste water is released. In some regions, the potential harmful effects of effluent on fish and other aquatic organisms are also assessed by conducting comprehensive receiving water studies.

MINIMISING IMPACT

UPM does not use or produce elemental chlorine bleached pulp because it generates harmful emissions in water. UPM only procures and produces enhanced ECF or TCF bleached pulps.

In Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF) bleaching, the bleaching agent is chlorine dioxide, and in Total Chlorine Free (TCF), the bleaching agents are hydrogen peroxide or ozone. Studies have shown that there are no significant differences between the treated effluent of modern ECF and TCF pulp mills.

To minimise the impact of both ECF and TCF pulp mills it is important to have a Biological effluent treatment plant in place. In addition to that, the optimisation of the whole production process plays a much bigger role in reducing the impact on the environment than the bleaching method itself.