OVERVIEW EXTENDED PRODUCER RESPONSIBILITY MAKES THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY BIGGER AND BETTER
Pulp for rayon, sponges, and cellophane. Many of these products are recyclable, which means they can be diverted from landfill and made into new products. Process waste is used to make compost, biochar and fertiliser for the agricultural sector and the young seedlings that are destined to replace harvested trees.
By paying their dues towards an extended producer responsibility (EPR) programme, paper manufacturers, importers and brand owners can extend their producer responsibility beyond their own factories and their customers’ hands. Pulp and paper products are made from sustainably farmed trees. Certified to international forestry standards, South Africa’s plantations are the source of thousands of everyday products. Copy paper. Newspapers. Tissue. Packaging. Nampak produces crêpe paper at Verulam and Rafalo produces tissue paper. SA Paper Mills is another paper producer. Mpact’s upgrade of its Felixton mill has increased capacity and improved efficiency. The project cost R765-million and takes overall production up to 215 000 tons and a lightweight container-board option has been included in the product lines. This is in response to market demand for lighter packaging. Mpact has plastics and paper operations, with the paper section divided into three divisions: paper manufacturing, corrugated and converted paper products and recycling.
Timber The National Depar tment of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries reports that South Africa has a shortage of sawn timber. TWK has announced that it wants to buy 11 000 hectares of forest land to support its woodchip sales and timber exports. TWK, which listed on ZAR X in 2017, runs a woodchip production and export facility in Richards Bay, with an annual
www.fibrecircle.co.za
capacity of 900 000 tons of woodchips. Two kinds of woodchip are produced: Acacia mearnsii and mixed eucalyptus. Exports are primarily to pulp and paper producers in India, China and Japan. Demand for woodchips was exceptionally high in the first half of 2019, but this led to an oversupply and a dip in prices in the second half of the year. The KwaZulu-Natal provincial government’s strategy of creating Industrial Economic Hubs (IEHs) includes the development and expansion of wood processing in the Harry Gwala District Municipality. Timber plantations are found in five parts of the province: northern KwaZulu-Natal, Midlands, southern KwaZulu-Natal, Zululand and Maputaland. Close to half-a-million hectares – 38.5% of the land in South Africa devoted to forestry – is allocated to timber plantations. Of this area, 70% is devoted to hardwoods and the balance to pine, the only softwood grown in large quantities in South Africa. The percentage of privately-owned forest land is 93.4%. Merensky has plantations in the Dargle forest while Sappi and Mondi have holdings across the province, and in other parts of South Africa. The Merensky Group operates one softwood sawmill and a panel-processing plant in Kokstad that is geared to manufacture according to customers’ needs in any sector. Export is done through the Port of Durban. NCT Forestry Co-op Limited is a timber-marketing entity with 1 800 shareholding members, representing a total area of 300 000ha. R&B Timber Group has three pole treatment plants and is headquartered in Harding. Natal Forest Products, a Richmond-based company, is part of the R&B Group. Flaxton Treated Timbers operates out of Ixopo. ■
KWAZULU-NATAL BUSINESS 2020/21
Online Resources Forestry South Africa: www.forestry.co.za KwaZulu-Natal Department of Agriculture and Rural Development: www.kzndard.gov.za Paper Manufacturers of South Africa: www.thepaperstory.co.za South African Institute of Forestry: www.saif.org.za Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry of South Africa: www.tappi.org
30
