Cowpens, SC Paper Mill
Sustainability
In 2000 the Cowpens, SC mill received a, "2000 Best Industry Recycling Program" award from DHEC. The mill was recognized as one of the top industries for recycling including waste materials from the mill. In 2007 the mill consumed about 225,000 tons that would have gone to a landfill and produced approximately 200,000 tons of paper. However, only about 19,500 tons were sent to the landfill, which was mostly wire from bales and plastic. The mill will sell about 6,000 tons of pellets outside of the paper industry that are made out of the paper mill sludge. The mill has reduced tons going to landfill by almost 35% since 2001 while increasing good tons produced by over 18%!
The mill also has received two grants from the U.S. Department of Energy, one for using ozone in the water treatment area and one for looking at a biomass gas process. Both were successful and we use ozone today in our water treatment facility as does most water treatment facilities. The biomass study was also successful but we chose not to continue the project and place biomass facility on our property. many others have used the mill study to initiate biomass projects. The Department of Energy has both of the these projects available to anyone who would like to see or use them.
The mill has also received a "Power Partner Award" from Duke Energy becuase of our initiative and help to them with our boiler. The electric boiler saves the mill several million dollars a year and reduces over all energy consumption. The electric boiler is 99.99% efficient and the gas boilers are about 80-82% efficient. The electric boiler has no discharge like a fossil fuel boilers so the green house gasses have been reduced by over 50% since 2001.
In addition, the Cowpens mill is a closed mill that does not discharge any process water! State of the art ultra filtration and nano filtration systems are used to clean the mill water for reuse. Reverse osmosis water cleaning systems supply all the boilers clean water. Only about 400 gallons of fresh water per ton of paper produced are consumed incuding about 90,000 gallons a day of make up water for the boilers.
Several other projects are being evaluated that will also improve the mill's environmental position. A study is underway for the mill to potentially use bio-fuels in the future to generate steam and electricity.
Most of the mill's furnish comes from about 125-mile area. About eighty (80%) percent of the furnish is post consumer. The rest is postindustrial.
Kapstone is also a member of The American Forest and Paper Association (AF & PA), which has a very strong Sustainability program of which we are a part.
