Pulp- and Paperindustry

Every flush of your loo affects our environment and while low-flush toilets have helped some households save 35000 litres of water a year, it took an Eastern Suburbs man to tackle the toilet-paper dilemma.

Saved A Tree co-founder Damien Scarf, a Vaucluse resident, said global toilet-paper use destroys 27,000 trees every day but his company had found a way to make a loo roll without it costing the earth.

The Internal Revenue Service may have handed U.S. pulp and paper companies a multibillion-dollar gift by ruling that black liquor produced in 2009 is eligible for an even more lucrative tax credit than the one claimed by manufacturers last year.

The June 28 ruling contradicts previous guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency that the molasses-like pulp byproduct could not qualify for Cellulosic Biofuel Producer Credits (CBPC) because it is not a motor-vehicle fuel or fuel additive. The new IRS ruling does not allow the same black liquor to receive both the original black liquor credits ("alternative fuel mixture") and CBPCs, the so-called Son of Black Liquor tax credits.

The exact impact of the ruling is unclear, but in theory it is be worth more than $10 billion to U.S. companies.

Publicly traded U.S. companies received more than $6.5 billion in black liquor tax credits last year by exploiting a loophole in legislation designed to subsidize "green" fuels. Privately held companies probably qualified for at least another $2 billion.
 

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JSE-listed Sappi announced on Thursday that its Southern African unit would consolidate its paper and paper packaging businesses to strengthen its ability to meet customer requirements and to develop new business opportunities.

Sappi Fine Paper South Africa and Sappi Kraft would merge to become Sappi Paper and Paper Packaging South Africa, with Sappi Southern Africa CEO Jan Labuschagne to assume direct responsibility for this new division.

A German company is hoping to take control of the former AbitibiBowater paper mill in central Newfoundland, Natural Resources Minister Kathy Dunderdale revealed in the house of assembly Thursday afternoon.