CompuServe Messages

Bill, Most chemicals in the making of paper are in a closed system – very little gets into the environment. Course, the militant environmentalists want 0% discharge, regardless of the cost, which directly translates to mill closures and thousands of permamently lost jobs. Yes, lots of acids, bases, and other nasties are used in the making of paper. The local kraft mill used to use chlorine and caustic soda (base) to bleach (hey, isn't that somebodies Bix name <grin>) the kraft. Now they have chlorine free – use chlorine dioxide. Other mills are looking at using oxygen in the bleaching process. It is mostly the bleaching process that produces the nasties that get discharged somewhere. People like white paper! Before paper can be recycled, it must be de-inked. There is no way the ink coloring can be hidden by bleaching the paper later. Most inks are very toxic. Some newspapers are starting to turn to vegitable based inks, but it will be a long time before most inks are non-toxic, if ever. I doubt that marvelous toner we use in our lasers is very safe stuff. If people really wanted to be environment friendly, and live in a major city, they should quit using their cars to go to work every day. The large cities should invest in better/larger mass transit systems that use electricity from nice, clean nuclear plants, not dirty coal burning power plants. They should also quit using plastic where wood or paper equivalents could be used for disposable items. Yah, this could get to be an emotional issue, but I think we should leave that to the militant (blind) environmentalists, eh! <grin> 73, Kelly