UPM's Paper Plant Minimises Environmental Impact

Described as a good example of tackling carbon emissions and minimising environmental impact, UPM has opened a new boiler plant at its Shotton paper mill site in Flintshire (north Wales).

The opening was marked by the govenrment's Secretary of State for Wales, the Right Honourable Peter Hain MP.

The new boiler plant, which was commissioned last December, combusts all sludge produced from the Shotton paper mill's recovered paper recycling process, using biomass fuels.

The investment has increased UPM Shotton's self-sufficiency in heat by up to 90 per cent -95 per cent and in power by up to 25 per cent.

In addition, UPM's carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 30,000 tonnes annually, said the company.

Peter Hain said: "Climate change is the greatest single threat facing the world today and renewable energy schemes like UPM's biomass plant have a crucial role to play in tackling it.

The government supports a wide range of measures to encourage biofuels and other renewable energy sources so I am particularly pleased to see large multi-nationals like UPM taking renewable energy so seriously.

UPM is playing a crucial role in helping us to reduce carbon emissions in line with the government's commitment to reduce carbon emissions by 1.2 million tonnes of carbon (MTC) by 2020." And he added that the company's use of biofuels and recycled materials are exemplars of how businesses should approach the task of reducing CO2 emissions and minimising environmental impact.

David Ingham, vice president and general manager of UPM Shotton, commented: "The continuous improvement of the UPM Shotton site has been enabled by support of not only the government and its agencies but also by employees and our parent company.

It is a testament to all those partners that UPM Shotton has become a model of sustainable business." UPM Shotton's production capacity is 520,000 tonnes of newsprint based solely on recovered paper.

The mill's processing capacity is 700,000 tonnes of recovered paper annually and it employs 460 people at the Deeside Industrial Estate site.

Last December UPM announced an investment of GBP59M for another renewable energy plant for its UPM Caledonian paper mill in Ayrshire (Scotland).

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