Experience with water system closure at recycled paperboard mills

A number of mills producing recycled paperboard operate zero discharge water cycles. In general, these mills elected to convert to zero discharge as the economical option to achieve environmental compliance given the specific manufacturing practices employed at these locations. Recently, EPA has proposed that all non-deinking recovered fiber mills (except those producing tissue towelling and molded products) classified as a New Source will be required to achieve zero discharge of process wastewaters. The objective of this study was to assemble information characterizing existing zero discharge operations to be used to assess the appropriateness of requiring all new non-deinking recovered fiber mills to achieve zero discharge. This information was obtained by conducting two separate surveys of zero discharge mills. The results of these two surveys are presented in this paper.