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Participation in the pioneering development of technology to recycle long-life packages exemplifies Klabin’s commitment to recycling and to reducing the environmental impact of consumer wastes.
Klabin SA is the largest producer, exporter and recycler of paper in Brazil, and the market leader in paper and paperboard for packaging, corrugated boxes, industrial bags and timber logs to sawmills and plywood. Its production capacity is 1.9 million tons of paper, intended for conversion into paper bags or exported to some 70 countries.
With paper-recycling units in Guapimirim (RJ), Piracicaba (SP) and Goiás (PE), Klabin is the biggest paper recycler in South America, with annual capacity of 200,000 tons. All units are certified by ISO standard 9001 and 14001 and the production process are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®), which ensures that the company complies with the strictest social and environmental standards. Apart from supplying the units of corrugated boxes, Klabin's recycled papers are sold in Brazil and abroad.
The results of this initiative are clear: reductions in the need for virgin fiber, in the volume of urban waste and in the costs of production. Besides this, it generates income for the whole recycling chain.
It is important to point out that fibers have a limited capacity to be recycled: that limit is considered to be between 5 and 7 cycles. At each recycling, they diminish in size, flexibility and bonding capacity and that is why the production of virgin fibers has to continue.
The recycled paper from Klabin is used mainly in its corrugated box converting plants.
Out of all the waste paper recycled by the company, 80 thousand tons come from its nine corrugated box plants: side trim (waste) from the production process which is returned to be recycled. However the biggest volume supplied comes from the market, through waste dealers (companies which sell waste paper).
The recycling process stands for an important social contribution, by providing work for thousands of curbside collectors throughout the country. This proposal is reconfirmed by company participation in Cempre (Corporate Commitment to Recycling), an association maintained by private companies from various sectors and dedicated to the promotion of recycling with the concept of integrated waste management. Cempre’s activities seek to make society aware of the importance of reducing, reusing and recycling with the support of publications, technical surveys, seminars and data banks.
Klabin is the first company from Latin America to achieve certification by the FSC® (Forest Stewardship Council®), attesting to the fact that its forest management, paper manufacture and corrugated board production are all carried out in a sustainable manner. The recycled production processes have also been certified in four plants of the company: Goiana (PE), Guapimirim (RJ), Ponte Nova (MG) and Piracicaba (SP), the biggest recycled paper plant in the country.
Paper recycling is a sustainable practice and optimizes the consumption of natural resources, reduces volumes for landfill and produces income. The stages of Klabin’s industrial recycling process are:
1) Collection, selection and sale of waste paper;
2) Production of paper: the waste is broken down in a machine known as a “hydrapulper”, which with the help of water separates the fibers, transforming them into a homogeneous mixture which after refining is converted into reels of paper;
3) Conversion of paper into corrugated boxes;
4) The side trims and broke coming from the box production process and from the market are returned to the recycled paper plants starting a new cycle;
Klabin is also one of the biggest global recyclers of Tetra Pak packages and is their exclusive supplier of liquid packaging board in Brazil and the Mercosur. With an annual capacity of 20 thousand long-life packages, this recycling process is carried out at the Piracicaba plant, in São Paulo, with total recovery of the pulp fibers. The residues from this process – plastic and aluminum – are sent to EET (Environmental Edge Technology), a recycling plant also located in Piracicaba, with a capacity to recuperate one ton of plastic and aluminum per hour – which is the equivalent of recycling 32 thousand tons of long-life packs per year. Annually, the plant reaches a production of about 6.4 thousand tons of paraffin and 1.6 thousand tons of aluminum.
Fruit of the partnership between Klabin, Tetra Pak, Alcoa and TSL Ambiental, the EET company, which was inaugurated in May 2005, separates the aluminum and plastic which are components in the carton packaging.
The use of Plasma technology in recycling long-life packages brings with it big benefits. From the point-of-view of the Environment, for example, there is a reduction of waste in industrial landfills, since 20 thousand tons of packages are now being recycled. From the social point-of-view, there is a boost to the income of curbside collectors who are benefited by the greater added value from the long-life packages.
The concept and management model practiced in the Plasma Project aim to meet the needs of the present without compromising the capacity of future generations.
It is the practical execution of the premises of Sustainable Development, with economic, social and environmental results, enabling more efficient processes, more jobs, better products and services, at the same time as it reduces the use of resources, the generation of waste and pollution throughout the production chain.
To develop the technology and install the plant, the companies invested over R$13 million.