Passage 2
Computerized data storage and electronic mail were to have heralded the paperless office. But, contrary to expectations, paper consumption throughout the world shows no sign of abating. In fact, consumption, especially of printing and writing papers, continues to increase. World demand for paper and board is now expected to grow faster than the general economic growth in the next 15 years. Strong demand will be underpinned by the growing industrialization of South-East Asia, the reemergence of paper packaging, greater use of facsimile machines and photocopies, and the popularity of direct-mail advertising. It is possible that by 2007, world paper and board demand will reach 455 million tons, compared with 241 million tons in 1991.
The pulp and paper industry has not been badly affected by the electronic technologies that promised a paperless society. But what has radically altered the industry’s structure is pressure from another front-a more environmentally conscious society driving an irreversible move towards cleaner industrial production. The environmental consequences of antiquated pulp mill practices and technologies had marked this industry as one in need of reform. Graphic descriptions of deformed fish and thinning populations, particularly in the Baltic Sea where old pulp mills had discharged untreated effluent for 100 years, have disturbed the international community.
Until the 1950s, it was common for pulp mills and other industries to discharge untreated effluent into rivers and seas. The environmental effects were at the time either not understood, or regarded as an acceptable cost of economic prosperity in an increasingly import-oriented world economy. But greater environmental awareness has spurred a fundamental change in attitude in the community, in movement and in industry itself.
Since the early 1980s, most of the world-scale pulp mills in the Scandinavia and North America have modernized their operations, outlaying substantial amounts to improve production methods. Changes in mill design and processes have been aimed at minimizing the environmental effects of effluent discharge while at the same time producing pulp with the whiteness and strength demanded by the international market. The environmental impetus is taking this industry even further, with the focus now on developing processes that may even eliminate waste-water discharges. But the ghost of the old mills continues face a flood of environment-related legislation. In Germany, companies are now being held responsible for the waste they create.
41.Why have some paper mills recently modernized their mill design?