The History of Androscoggin Mill and Environmental Issues in Our Free Essay

It is a great Pulp and Paper Mill in Jay, Marine, in the northeast United States. The description of the Androscoggin Mill goes from public opprobrium and the conflict that shows every case for environmental management. There was a strike which was carried out in the early 1980s which were an 18 months strike that left the mill in tabulations. In response to the factory environmental violations, some of the two former corporate-level employees had sought out to make changes in the business and make IPs best environmental performer (Peck & Daley, 1994). The primary reason for the strike was the fact that the Mill was undertaking some practices that were leading to the environment pollution. It was later evolved in the year 1990 whereby the Mill followed the principles of industrial ecology.

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New approaches focused on getting the benefits of the landfills wastes and replacements for the most hazardous chemical and reductions in active, harmful chemicals. An establishment was introduced whereby a public advisory committee in 1992 to integrate the pulp and the paper mills. It is considered as the largest mill in the forest production amounting to 117,000 employees worldwide (Peck & Daley, 1994). By the end of 2001, the Androscoggin Mill employed about 1,200 work forces where 150 were in the level to acquire salary. The technology of Kraft pulping was used, and it made sure that it produced 1600 tons of mostly coated paper per day.

It was the invite from President George H. Bush to join the Commission on Environmental Quality so that they could seek advice from the private sector on the environmental issues. The white house council was mandated to implore the company to find ways and strategies that would apply pollution prevention principles as well as put into test as new strategies and share the results. The transformation occurred in 1990s and 2000s whereby the primary focus was to; pursue pollution prevention projects, to form participation projects that would operate and become more open to the community that is involved together with the input (Peck & Daley, 1994). The aim was also to develop an environment model from which other facilities could learn.

When the Mill joined the corporation, it was one way to indicate that they would follow the rules and regulations of obtaining an environment that was free from any pollution and strive to minimize the impacts of the environment. When David Critchfield and Thomas Saviello joined the cooperation, they focused on establishing high standards together with putting trust regulators and the local communities. They worked together in making sure that the mill was free from the violations and the criminal indictments and made the Company be excellent of environment preservation (Hill, 2002). The company later was able to receive an award for Environment Excellent due to their efforts in pollution prevention. It was this award that was able to motivate the employees and became reinforcement for them to work harder towards achieving the environment

The paper enables the reader to identify that at first the Mill was carrying out some activities that were leading to the pollution of the environment. With the rate of producing 1600 tons of paper, it was clear that something needed to be done. Although the Company was doing an excellent job in providing an environment for job creation, there was a need for an extra step to be carried out. After the invite to join the corporation that maintained environmental principles, the Mill was able to put more effort and also made an environment that was free from pollution at that time (Hill, 2002). It, therefore, means that it was due to the call to stop the corruption that made the mill make an effort and a step ahead.

In 1992, pollution prevention opportunities were established whereby the team formed a pulp bleaching process on emission. There were two methods introduced by Mill staff as a result of the team recommendations that the bleaching processes could be used to minimize the lining of pulp. The Mill combined extended delignification that treated pulp with high-pressure oxygen to reduce the lignin content and the required bleaching. The pollution prevention projects resulted in a process that changed in 2002 when the Mill joined two USA EPA XL projects (Hill, 2002). The several prevention projects efforts were the extension of delignification oxygen extension among others.

The mill was able to include replacement of two hazardous products that were producing nitrogen and phosphorus which provided the growth of microorganism that degraded the organic materials in the factorys waste waters. Its efforts to reduce the accumulation and production of the hazardous materials generated the attention to prevent the caustic liquor spills, the substitution of barium, screening of the paint products before the purchase so that they can avoid the hazardous constituents and the purchase for low-mercury fluorescent bulbs to minimize the generation of relamping.

Some of the measures taken included recycling the woods, metals and also the paper, compacting the improving limekiln operations, non-recyclable paper into burnable pellets, to allow firing of the lime mud produced. The selling of the flume grit to a contractor that would process it into the landscape would also be done, burning the bark and the sludge and incorporating some ashes into the ash crete and incorporating the green liquor dregs into AshCrete.

The pulp and the paper industry have got a history of environment pollution. There has been a lot of critic about how they manage their activities and their processes together with their operation. It has been argued that the manner which they harvest their timber and for the processing operation. The environment regulations are considered as the savior of the environment by establishing different perspectives that direct companies like the pulp and paper industries into the right procedures and approaches of sustainable environment actions (Hill, 2002).Pulp uses a variety of methods to convert the wood to paper, and the separation can be caried out mechanically or through the use of chemicals. The use of the Kraft process ids what leads to the recycling of the liquids so that they can be reused or used for another purpose. It, therefore, provides a high range of P2 opportunities where there are washing and screening, and the pulp can be bleached into paper.

It was due to the occurrence of a crisis that made the industry have a wake-up call and create success outcome to the mill and the environment. The IP decision to find people who were responsible for making reforms was a significant step which led to the industry receiving an award and therefore motivating the workers. After its success, the mill did not relent, and it expanded its territories of change by coming up with different projects and also invited stakeholders who had the same interest as they did and that was to oversee the growth in production of the mill in a pollution free environment.

References

Hill, S. a. (2002). The Greening of a Pulp and Paper Mill. Journal of Industrial Ecology , 120.

Peck, V. & Daley, R. (1994). Toward a "greener" pulp and paper industry. The search for mill effluent contaminants and pollution prevention technology. Environmental Science & Technology, 28(12), 524A-527A. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/es00061a003