<MillWatch January 2005>

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NorskeCanada Crofton’s power boiler developed a crack in the exhaust stack in late December. The Cowichan News Leader on Vancouver Island reported that an employee noticed the stack was swaying in the wind more it was designed to do, due to a crack that went about 120 degrees around the stack. The company said no extra emissions came out, and the stack has been braced, allowing the mill to operate as usual.

—Cowichan News Leader, December 2004

Chilean Swans

Locals in Valdivia Chile are blaming a new local pulp mill for the death of thousands of black-necked swans in a nearby sanctuary. Scientists say the birds may be starving since a massive die-off of their prime source of food, a Brazilian waterweed known locally as luchecillo. But townspeople believe the culprit is the $1.2 billion Arauco pulp mill, which began operating in February upriver from the wetland sanctuary. The birds are not an endangered species, but their death is a national embarrassment and a flashpoint for concern about the mill and its use of resources.

— Reuters, January 2005

Office Depot Works with Norske

The Office Depot is working with NorskeCanada and Price WaterhouseCooper to develop an “independent chain of custody tracking system” for its North American marketing papers. For Office Depot to consider paper as environmentally preferable, it must contain post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled content or certified content, containing fibre from forests that are verified as responsibly managed by a “recognized forest certification standard.”,

—Office Depot, November 2004

Kleercut.net

In November, Greenpeace and Natural Resources Defense Council launched a campaign targeting Kimberly-Clark as the world’s largest manfacturer of tissue products such as Kleenex, complete with a spoof website at www.kleercut.net. The campaign is aimed at getting the company to use significantly more post- consumer recycled paper or agricultural residues in its products and give up its primary role in destroying Canada’s boreal forest.

—Greenpeace, November 2004

MillWatch

January 2005

Global Markets and Local Pollution

Crack in the Norske Stack

Chilean Swans

Office Depot Works with Norske

Kleercut.net

Office Paper Buying Club