Management and Benefits of Pulp and Paper Mill Residuals, 2003 Environmental Conference Proceedings

Domtar Inc. operates a comprehensive land application program for two of its pulp and/or paper mills located in Ontario. Solid organic residues known as Pulp and Paper Mill Biosolids (PPMB) generated by the effluent treatment plants of both mills are used as soil amendments, fertilizer or mulch in agriculture, silviculture and land rehabilitation projects. The 10-year-old program has developed to sustainably recycle 100 percent of PPMB organic type residues that were formerly managed as waste and landfilled. Landfilling and incineration is still a common management option for most of the Pulp and Paper industry in Canada. The Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada determined, from the results of a survey in 1995, that industry generated 7.1 million dry tones of residues; 23% of which were PPMB. An estimated 119,000 dry tones of PPMB were land applied in Canada, representing 7% of the total available. A 2001 follow-up survey indicated that this had increased to where 42% practised some degree of land application. Land application of PPMB is safe, ecologically sustainable, environmentally responsible, agronomically beneficial, and economically sensible. Although the regulatory regimes in Canada at the provincial and federal levels discourage the recycling of “industrial wastes”, many opportunities exist for the wise use of these resources through land application, provided programs deal with their communities and publics in an open and proactive manner.