Taiwan paper industry embraces circular economy on road to net zero

台灣造紙業擁抱循環經濟邁向淨零之路

Industry veteran says paper products a carbon sink and suited to circular economy


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s paper industry is at the forefront of sustainable business in Taiwan, according to some of the industry’s leading figures.

Veteran business leader and Chinese National Federation of Industries Vice-Chair Show-Chung Ho (何壽川) spoke to the Taiwan Paper Association’s General Assembly on June 28 and said that Taiwan’s paper industry serves as a substantial carbon sink in Taiwan.

Ho said that the industry has met the standard for the world’s first circular economy BS8001 certification, and encouraged members of the assembly to actively pursue a paper industry carbon offset certification. He said he is confident that in the future, the carbon offset value of the paper industry will be on par with its sales revenue, highlighting the industry’s vital role in the net-zero emissions landscape.

The circular economy standard is becoming increasingly popular for businesses that seek to improve their environmental record. The model focuses on reusing and recovering materials used in the production cycle for as long as possible, a model that Ho said is well suited to the paper industry.

“For more than 30 years, Taiwan’s paper industry has been silently working on environmental protection,” he said. “It is definitely a role model for circular economy production throughout the country.”

Ho also said that wood, pulp, and paper have unique characteristics for carbon sequestration, as carbon is stored both in the materials used to make paper, and the end product itself.

Taiwan Paper Association and YFY Inc. CSO Kirk Hwang (黃鯤雄) agreed and said that where some talk about an industry’s “carbon emission footprint," the paper industry strives for a “carbon fixation footprint.”

“That means we contribute to carbon storage, or fixation,” he said. “However, we also produce emissions through making paper, so we have to keep the carbon emissions below the level of carbon fixation to achieve surplus, and generate a carbon sink as a contribution to the global climate crisis.”

Ho described a range of processes involved in paper-making that work towards this end, from closed water systems for paper recycling to waste reclamation for fuel. He described how ash waste products, a significant source of pollution if turned into landfill, are reclaimed and added to concrete mix for construction.

Taiwan has recently decided to elevate the government’s environmental protection agency to ministry status, and created the Ministry of Environment. This process also saw the creation of the Climate Change Administration and the Resource Recycling Administration, which Ho said have significant implications for the paper industry.

Ho said that the new ministry and agencies embody many of the concepts inherent to the circular economy and the paper industry, which the paper industry has been practicing and developing for many years.

Hwang said that the new government agencies created by the act should move from a policing role that environmental protection agencies may have played in the past, to proactively promoting circular economy concepts.

“We should be turning waste into an asset, instead of treating it as pollution,” Hwang said.

Hwang described two types of waste produced in the paper-making process, and said each can be used to create further value. For organic waste, used clean paper can be recycled to make new paper, while dirty paper (food containers, for example) is washed and used for energy production.

Many of the paper mills in Taiwan are self-contained, Hwang said, and have on-site power generation. When burning fossil fuels for power, the leftover ash can be taken and used in construction, namely as an addition to concrete, Hwang said.

However, an increasing amount of paper mills’ energy uses waste fiber as an alternative fuel.

With regard to water, Ho also said that the industry is making great efforts to reduce its water consumption and recycle what it does use. There is great competition among Taiwan’s businesses for water, and the semiconductor industry in particular is prioritized by the government when allocating resources.

However, Hwang said that most of Taiwan’s paper mills are not part of this competition. “We don’t compete for water from the government utility, for example from the reservoirs, we have our own water treatment systems, and can recycle more than 80% of the water we use on average,” Hwang said.

Hwang said the government needs to help the industry facilitate these kinds of resource transfers and sustainable practices, particularly among different industries, and to create mechanisms that support the circular economy. He said Taiwan’s National Federation of Industries released a white paper on Tuesday (Aug. 8) with policy recommendations for circular economy development and net zero, to be submitted to the President and relevant government agencies for consideration.