Canada is a land of trees, and forest resources have played an important part in our country's development. Canada's forests are managed under the jurisdiction of the provinces who set the legal and regulatory authorities. National coordination of forest-related initiatives is managed by the federal government. Our forest resource base is immense, representing just under half of Canada's land mass. The area covers about 418 million hectares and reaches from coast to coast. This equals approximately 10% of the world's forest cover. Approximately 120 million hectares (about 28.5% of the total forested area in Canada) is managed for timber production.
Only one million hectares (only 1/4 of 1%) are actually harvested each year an amount substantially less than the hectares lost annually due to pests and fire. In addition, the amount of trees available for harvest each year is actually growing, due to improved forest management and silviculture. Over a 15 year period between 1981 and 1995, the volume of commercial wood fibre has increased by 937 million cubic metres, despite harvesting, fires and insect destruction.
Canadian science and technology to care for this important resource has advanced rapidly through an ongoing commitment of both government and industry to research and innovation.
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A common perception is that all packaging ends up in the dump shortly after use. This is far from the truth. Much packaging is designed for long life. For example, many corrugated boxes are widely used for filing purposes and these will ever end up in a dump or be recycled because they are continuously re-used. Paper-based packaging is, in fact, quite widely re-used. The 1996 National Packaging Survey estimated re-use at 14%, most of it corrugated containers by the wholesale trade. Corrugated containers are both used and re-used for storage; for moving furniture long after the original product is removed; and for carrying groceries from stores.
Almost 90% of the fibre in a Canadian-made corrugated box comes from recycled used boxes and/or chips, shavings and sawdust from logging and wood processing operations. Only 13% is actually made from logs. And even when you get down to the logs we have a good story to tell. The provinces, which own 80% of Canada's commercial forest, set what are called AAC's (annual allowable cut) based on the sustainability of the forest resource. This takes into account losses due to forest fires, insect infestation, disease, and harvesting. The latest figures indicate the paper industry as a whole (not just the packaging sector) harvested only 52% of the hardwoods and 93% of the softwoods the provinces said was sustainable levels.
The corrugated box is one of the most widely recycled of all packaging materials. According to the 1996 National Packaging Survey commissioned by the Canadian Council of Ministers of the Environment, corrugated's national recovery rate (re-use and recycling) was 80%, and its national recycling rate 77 %.
Most corrugated is used to ship raw materials and products to factories, warehouses, retail stores and offices. And this is where most of the boxes to be recycled come from. One major Ontario supermarket chain, for example, recycles four times as many old corrugated boxes as all the municipalities of Ontario put together. But corrugated is also widely collected from homes across Canada. More tonnes of corrugated are collected nationally than any other packaging material. In fact, over a quarter of residential packaging captured for recycling is corrugated.
Even as the recycling rate for corrugated is increased (out of the home and out of factories and supermarkets) it will never be enough to supply the demand Canadian mills have for these old boxes. To meet customer demand for paper with recycled content, Canada must import almost 2 million tones of recovered paper (mostly used boxes) each year, largely from the United States. Canada simply cannot supply enough.
OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION
In 1989, there was only one newsprint mill in Canada capable of making recycled-content newsprint. Today, there are 62.
Investments for de-inking and recycling facilities at Canadian mills have totalled $1.5 billion over the last eight years.
The paper industry has reduced its fossil fuel consumption by 20% between 1990 and 1994 - shifting to waste wood and biomass.
No ozone-depleting substances are used in production.
Over 97% of inks used for printing are water-based and non-toxic.
The industry has completed a $5-billion pollution abatement program which has effectively eliminated dioxins and furans and sharply reduced other pollutants in the waste stream of its facilities.
As well, it recently announced an $89-million project to develop paper mills that generate virtually no effluent - closed-cycle technologies which will keep it in the forefront of environmental technology.
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