Organic Chemicals, Pulp and Paper — Annat Point (Scotland)

A pulp and paper mill is a factory producing organic chemicals. It starts with biological materials, trees, and processes them into woodfibre — in a form which can be exported as rolled-up strips of solid pulp, or its byproduct, paper. Along the way, organic materials are inevitably wasted and lost — these include beneficial nutrients, dangerously changed hydrocarbons (chlorinated), and smothering woodfibre (Fig. 5.1). The wastes also include a mix of toxic chemicals used in the pulping and paper-making processes, such as chlorine and zinc. Finally, there are natural inorganic toxins wasted — different trees have bioaccumulated different trace metals from their ecosystem as they grew.