Wisconsin is the United State's largest paper producer, and has been for years.  Pulp and Paper companies also constitute the largest manufacturing sector in the state, providing thousands of high-paid jobs.  Unfortunately, the environment, and our democracy, has suffered because of it.

Damage Caused by the Paper Industry
 

Contaminated Sediments, Fish & Ducks --- The paper industry has been a major source of accumulated toxic chemicals in several rivers in Wisconsin, most notably of PCBs to the Fox River and Green Bay system in Northeast Wisconsin.  (see Fox River Watch)  Clean Water Action Council has been fighting 18 years to get the Fox River PCB sediment contamination cleaned up, but in the last seven miles of the river, the DNR and EPA recently chose a cleanup target which will leave the river and bay unhealthy for another 55-100+ years.  Continuing Toxic Pollution --- The paper industry is a major source of toxic chemical pollution in Wisconsin.  The federal and state Toxic Release Inventories shows releases of approximately 14 million pounds of known toxic substances in 1996.  Modest reductions in chemical use over the years (per unit of production) seem to be countered by increased production.

Many toxic chemicals are used in paper making, especially toxic solvents and chlorine compounds used to bleach and delignify pulp.  Additional toxins are used as biocides to prevent bacterial growth in the pulp and finished paper products.  (In the past, toxic mercury compounds were used as biocides, contributing to Wisconsin's mercury contamination problems in fish.)  (see Toxic Pollution)

Conventional Air Pollution --- Pulp and paper mills are large sources of standard air pollutants, such as carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxides, carbon monoxides and particulates.  These contribute to ozone warnings, acid rain, global warming and respiratory problems.  Many of the mills are large enough to have their own coal-fired power plants, raising additional concerns about mercury, arsenic and radioactive emissions.  (see Air Pollution)

Energy Consumption --- Paper making is energy intensive, drawing larges amount of electricity from public utilities, or forcing mills to build their own power plants.  This is a signficant contributor to the air pollution in our region, and to the hidden damages due to fuel extraction at the source (oil drilling, oil spills, coal mining, pipelines, transmission lines, etc.)  (see Energy)

Water Consumption --- Paper making uses a great deal of water, frequently from diminishing groundwater supplies.  In the Green Bay area, the aquifer drawdown caused by excessive high capacity wells of the paper industry are a major cause of our municipal water woes, forcing local taxpayers to build expensive pipelines 30 miles to Lake Michigan.  The Aquifer Storage and Recovery proposal is also partly due to water consumption by the paper industry.  (see Aquifer Storage)

Solid Waste --- Paper making generally produces a large amount of solid waste.   Unfortunately, landfilling costs in Northeast Wisconsin are relatively cheap (often less than $20 per ton), so the industry has little incentive for making more efficient use of its materials.   Because we have so many paper recycling industries in our area, an even larger quantity of waste is generated.  Paper fibers can be recycled only a limited number of times before they become too short or weak to make high quality paper. This means the broken, low- quality fibers are separated out to become waste sludge.   All the inks, dyes, coatings, pigments, staples and "stickies" (tape, plastic films, etc.) are also washed off the recycled fibers to join the waste solids.  The shiney finish on glossy magazine-type paper is produced using a fine kaolin clay coating, which also becomes solid waste during recycling.  These paper mill sludges consume a large percentage of our local landfill space each year.   Worse yet, some of the wastes are landspread on cropland as a disposal technique, raising concerns about trace contaminants building up in soil or running off into area lakes and streams.   Some companies burn their sludge in incinerators, contributing to our serious air pollution problems.

Deforestation --- Worldwide, enormous tracts of virgin forest are being felled for paper pulp production, contributing to the world's tragic deforestation trends.  Many Wisconsin mills import their pulp and undoubtedly some of this pulp came from old-growth endangered forests.  Citizen networks have formed worldwide in an effort to save the last of these precious, irreplacable places.  (Trees may be renewable, but ancient forest plant and animal communities are often not renewable because of the complex ecological balance which was built over thousands, even millions, of years in some of these forests.)

Corruption of Democracy --- Paper is king in Wisconsin, literally.  For many decades, the industry has been pampered by local, state and federal governments -- with tax breaks, energy breaks, incentive grants, university research projects, employee training programs, cheap water, cheap pulpwood, cheap landfills, and other generous subsidies.  The paper industry is not an example of "free enterprise" or "capitalism," rather, it is fascism, the corporate control of government.  The paper industry gives generously to political campaigns, and is rewarded.  Most recently, the Wisconsin Paper Council's requests have been granted for a $45 million tax break (in the middle of record-breaking deficits), further energy breaks, and the Governor's promise of "streamlined" environmental permitting (heaven help us...)   For 30 years, the paper industry successfully blocked the Fox River PCB cleanup, and they've been extremely influencial in weakening Wisconsin's air, water and solid waste regulations since the beginnings of those programs.   Any time a new environmental standard is proposed, the paper industry lobbyists are there, often in large numbers, to protect the paper industry from its responsibilities.  Politicans provide no leadership.  It appears that the Republicans are more concerned with protecting the corporations, while the Democrats are more concerned with labor unions and protecting paper worker jobs.  Neither seems to care about the bigger picture of public health protection, natural resource conservation or environmental sustainability.  (see Campaign Finance Reform)

Other Paper Industry Sections:

• Local Paper Industry Profiles and Politics --- FoxRiverWatch
• CWAC Newsletter Articles About the Paper Industry
• Links to More Information