Sinar Mas Pulp and Paper: Facing public ire

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Sinar Mas Pulp & Paper (India) Ltd is located along the Pune-Solapur highway near village Bhadalwadi of district Pune, Maharashtra. Though the company has done well in the ratings, it has not been ranked as it started operations only in 1997, and the ratings are based on performance in the period 1995-96 to 1997-98. The company is a unit of the Asia Pulp & Paper Company Ltd, a US $5-billion company based in Indonesia with operations in several countries. Sinar Mas imports the bleached pulp that it needs. It does not have to source fibre from India, also managing to avoid the dirtiest part of papermaking.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB), Pune, says the local community and NGOs have lodged several complaints against the company. Most of these were concerning pollution of water, air and soil. An important complaint has been that the mill is getting cheap water from the nearby Ujjaini dam. Partly in response to the community protest, the company has invested in a high order effluent treatment system. The mill is using just 25 tonnes of water per unit of paper produced.

As the mill does not have pulping operations, its use of chemicals is low. The treated water is then used partly in the factory complex and the rest is discharged through a 12-km closed pipeline to a drain.

But the mill has done poorly in the use of its resources, particularly energy consumption. Also, the company does not reuse as much of wastewater as it can with a little more effort. If it recycles its own effluent, it can lower its per unit water consumption further and will also get added points from the local community. With over 300 hectare of industrial complex, even with the relatively low rainfall, it can harvest a substantial part of its water requirements through rainwater harvesting. Water and its wise use will be the key to success for the multinational giant.