For years Torraspapel has been introducing new technologies that are more and more environment-friendly, making large investments that have enabled it to reduce its consumption of raw materials, water and energy and decrease the environmental impacts of its processes in order to guarantee sustainability.

Waste water treatment at the Sant Joan mill

Torraspapel's paper mill in Sant Joan les Fonts (Girona, Spain) is located inside the Garrotxa Volcanic Area Nature Park. This fact, together with Torraspapel's firm intention to be an environmentally responsible company, has turned the Sant Joan mill into a pioneer in the improvement of all environmental parameters.

One of the main sources of waste generation in paper mills is the process of purifying pulp before it enters the papermaking machine. This purification process is essential to ensure the quality of the sheets of paper.

In order to minimise the impact of sending this waste to landfill or incineration, the company initiated a project to reprocess all of the waste and feed it back into the pulp circuit of the machine. The units involved came into service in June 2004. Since that time, the amount of solid waste generated in the water purifier has decreased by 39.6%.