Paper industry is one of the production sectors that have negative impacts on the environment as it uses many kinds of bleaching chemicals. For this reason, over recent years, Vinapaco has taken numerous measures for cleaner production to restrict wastes to the environment.

In the 2003-2010 period, Vinapaco has taken a series of solutions to upgrade and complete its production system. Specifically, Vinaco upgraded breaching technology by splitting lignin by oxygen to whiten pulps. This solution reduced 60 percent of the Chlorine used to whiten pulps, helping it save VND149 billion. The corporation also conducted technological transformation to restrict chemical leaks to the environment and eliminate asbestos out of the production line. To save water, Vinapaco reused water from the pre-treatment line (about 2,000 m2 per day) for production. These changes helped Vinapaco reduce waste discharge and tighten control of the wastes out to the environment, especially at paper and pulp production workshops.

When expanding production (phase 1) to increase pulp production capacity to 73,000 tonnes a year and paper production capacity to 100,000 tonnes a year, Vinapaco invested a large amount of capital (about more than VND200 billion) in cleaner production, for example the wastewater and dust treatment systems and solid waste. The microorganism wastewater treatment system with a designed capacity of 30,000 m3 a day after being put into use helped collect all production and domestic wastewater in the corporation and the wastewater of other nearby companies. The monitoring results of the wastewater quality after treatment process showed that the wastewater met national technical standards on the environment. In addition, Vinapaco’s wastewater treatment system helped treat 96 percent of the dust of the whole system and reduced 90 percent of the gas causing bad smell into the environment.

The solid waste treatment system also helped retrieve many things like bark, sawdust, slag and sludge to sell as raw materials.

In addition, to further save materials and energy during production process, Vinapaco launched propaganda programs to all employees’ efficient use of energy, electricity, water, and raw materials. Maintaining cleaner production and rationalizing phases in production helped Vinapaco reduce waste discharge right at the source.

To further promote cleaner production, a group of engineers of Vinapaco is undertaking a project on evaluating technology and efficiency of low and high brightness paper production process. Accordingly, in the first half of 2013, the corporation tested production and brought to market 2,200 tonnes of low brightness paper (76 percent ISO). In reality, when applying the same breaching technology, the low brightness paper has higher quality and durability compared with the high brightness paper. In addition, the low brightness paper does not use colorings, so it has fewer impacts on consumer’s eyesight and other advantages. Therefore, Vinapaco will continue its research and production on the low brightness paper to launch to the market in the coming time./.