Paper industry can cause contamination
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia should be prepared for the environmental consequences of its fast growing pulp and paper industry, environmental activists warned.
Lisa Finali, a chlorine campaign coordinator from Greenpeace, said in a seminar on Wednesday that Indonesia should make sure that its pulp and paper industry is environmentally friendly.
"Isn't it better to take a precautionary road rather than having to pay the price of choosing the wrong road?" Finali said.
The push for change, according to Finali, needs to come from industry, the government and consumers alike.
Indonesia's pulp and paper industry is expected to grow tremendously in the next 10 years.
Currently, the Indonesian Pulp and Paper Association has 15 pulp and 50 paper companies as members. By 1999, the industry association predicts that there will be 40 pulp factories and 75 paper factories.
But Finali says that such bright prospects for Indonesia's pulp and paper industry could pose a threat to the environment because organochlorine, the chemical used to bleach the paper pulp, is highly toxic for nearby water sources.
"The use of chlorine for pulp bleaching has led to widespread environmental contamination including dioxin," said David Santillo, a research scientist from the Greenpeace Research Laboratories at the University of Exeter, United Kingdom.
Dioxin, largely a byproduct of modern industry, is believed to damage to reproductive systems, suppress of immune systems and cause cancer.
Thomas Weber, from the Department of Environmental Health at Boston University School of Public Health, said that dioxin is a very toxic material formed when the bleaching agent chlorine is burned.
However, there are ways for the pulp and paper industry to become more environmentally sound. The industry can eliminate organochlorine discharges by using TCF (Totally Chlorine Free) bleaching when hydrogen peroxide and ozone are used.
Santillo said that substituting elemental chlorine with chlorine dioxide (ECF) can greatly reduce the generation and release of organochlorine during the bleaching process.
"A step further would be to make a total shift to alternative bleaching agents such as peroxide (TCF), which will prevent organochlorine synthesis, the only long-term sustainable option," he added.
Liana Bratasida, Director of Technical Development at the Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal), shared Finali's opinion, saying that the government now favors the voluntary compliance approach.
"If we raise consumers' awareness to understand which are environmentally 'good' and 'bad' products, market demand would be a very effective tool to boost voluntary compliance," Liana said.
Liana was referring to what she considers "ineffective approaches" such as the "command and control" or "end-of-the- pipe" methods which do not solve the problem of environmental contamination.
The one-day seminar, entitled Towards An Eco-Pulp and Paper Industry in Indonesia was held by Greenpeace and the Indonesian Center for Environmental Law (ICEL).
Mas Achmad Santosa, ICEL's Executive Director, lamented the lack of laws and regulations to support voluntary compliance practices.
Because of this, he suggested that stringent industrial liability rules be placed on producers of high level pollution in order to boost voluntary compliance. (06)