Australia Gets A$400 Million Paper Mill
11/8/99
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Title: AUSTRALIA Gets A$400 Million Paper Mill
Source: Environment News Service, http://www.ens.lycos.com/
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 8, 1999
TUMUT, New South Wales, Australia, November 8, 1999 (ENS) - Work has
begun on a A$400 million pulp and paper mill in New South Wales,
designed to create jobs and help the environment.
The Commonwealth supported the Visy Industries project, funding $40
million toward the mill, which is expected to create 1,000 jobs, said
Finance Minister John Fahey.
Engineered to include near-zero levels of effluent leaving the site,
the mill is Visy's last step in establishing itself as "a
competitive, self-sustaining paper and packaging firm," the company
said in a statement.
"It will be using old newspaper or reusing old office paper, some of
the various waste products from the forest itself," Fahey said.
The environmentally-friendly elements of the project include recovery
and recycling of the liquor used in the pulp cooking. During the
recovery process the liquor is fired in a recovery boiler which
produces steam.
Power is provided by co-generation. First a bark boiler is used to
fulfill the steam requirements, utilizing bark instead of discarding
it as waste. Excess steam is sent to a turbine that generates
electricity.
The paper machine will produce 175,000 tons of high quality kraft
liner per year. Latest technology will be applied to maximize the
mill's productivity.
The mill will be complete by the third quarter, 2001. When fully
operational, it will directly employ more than 124 people.
Established in 1948, Visy Industries is a paper recycling and
packaging company that employs more than 5,000 people in Australia,
New Zealand, and the United States. The company operates paper
recycling mills in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane. In the United
States, Visy Industries operates paper recycling mills in New York,
Georgia, and Indiana. It operates more than 40 corrugated cardboard
box-making factories across Australia, New Zealand, and in the
Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest of the United States.