ABSTRACT
Veracel was the first pulp mill in Brazil, in 2005, to
start manufacturing operations with a unit that produces
agricultural products ready to receive solid waste from the
pulp manufacturing process and convert it into fertilizers and
soil acidity correctives. However, in 2011, the recycling rate
for process solid waste was around 70% and their generation
was 55 kg of waste per ton of pulp (kg/Adt), on dry basis.
Consequently, the only cell in the industrial landfill had its
useful volume for receiving residues almost exhausted. This
was a very challenging scenario that motivated the company
in 2012 to design a very robust action plan to increase
recycling and pursue an extremely challenging long-term
goal of reducing to zero the amount of process waste sent to
the landfill by 2025. This was the milestone that changed the
company’s waste management vision and motivated everyone
to look for alternatives for recycling and reusing waste. In 2017,
Veracel reached a 98% process waste recycling rate. That year,
waste generation dropped to about 30 kg/Adt. In addition, the
same landfill cell was used until July 2020. This means that the
action plan increased the landfill’s useful life by twofold. In
2019, we reached a 99% process waste recycling rate, which
means that only about 1% of the waste generated is sent to
the industrial landfill. In general, this generation is the result
of sporadic events, related to some disturbance in the process.
August 2020 was the first time that the recycling rate reached
100%. Currently, the annual generation of limestone waste at
the Veracel plant is in balance with the need to use soil acidity
corrective in 1/7 of the company’s eucalyptus plantations. In
other words, 100% of the soil correction used in the forest
area is supplied by the agricultural products unit at the Veracel
mill. The soil acidity corrective and fertilizers are also sold to
agricultural producers in the region at very competitive prices.
All agricultural products are duly registered with the Ministry
of Agriculture in the name of Vida Desenvolvimento Ecológico
Company, at the service of Veracel.
Keywords: Process waste, agricultural products, recycling
and pulp mill.
Authors: Tarciso Andrade Matos1, Luiz Felipe Schmidt Eler1, Ari da Silva Medeiros1, Renata Maltz2
1 VERACEL Celulose, Brazil
2 VIDA Desenvolvimento Ecológico, Brazil
Corresponding author: Tarciso Andrade Matos. Affiliation: Veracel Celulose S.A. Address: Eunápolis, 45820-970, Brazil.
Phone: +55-73-31668055. e-mail: tarciso.matos@veracel.com.br
O PAPEL vol. 82, num. 1, pp. 74 - 81 - JAN 2021