BioRegional MiniMills, Asian Innovation Award

About the award

In January 2002, BioRegional MiniMills won an Asian Innovation Award, from the Far Eastern Economic Review.

BioRegional Mills' new clean technology pulps local agricultural waste into paper. The ‘MiniMill’ uses non-polluting, energy-efficient technology, to bring the dual environmental benefits of reducing pollution and saving the worlds wood resources.

The technology is suitable for developed and developing countries. There is an opportunity to bring the technology is in China, where the environmental benefits are very much needed. In 1998 China began to close thousands of highly polluting pulp and paper mills which raised many secondary problems for the country.

Since the closures tens of thousands of mill workers have faced job losses at a time when demand for paper is seeing massive growth. Farmers who supplied wheat and rice straw and other crop wastes to the mills for pulp have seen a drop in income. Air pollution has shot up in some areas as farmers returned to the traditional practice of burning crop waste in the fields.

Thanks to BioRegional the MiniMill offers cleaner solutions to a number of problems apparent in China’s paper industry. Chief among these is its ability to use ‘black liquor’ waste, the toxic by-product of pulp manufacturing as a fuel, so in effect the mill can run partially on its own waste. Black liquor and other pollutants from the industry have impacted notoriously on rivers such as the Huai in Jiangsu Province causing problems for human health, fish populations and rare wildlife such as the Chinese River Dolphin.

Sue Riddlestone Deputy Director of BioRegional said:

"We have been to China and met the people who have lost their jobs as the mills were closed down and seen the straw that used to be used to make paper now being burned in the fields. Straw can provide an alternative to wood pulp and would help to reduce pressure on the world's forests, so we are delighted to receive this award and will be working hard with our partners in China to make this technology a success"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Far_Eastern_Economic_Review#Awards_presented_by_FEER