“We have zero emissions right now”

Mr. Shimada Takahiro said that the company has a KOA factory producing paper for carton boxes, headquartered in Phu My 3 Industrial Park (Ba Ria-Vung Tau province). Carton boxes as well as carton paper are an important and indispensable industry in transportation. To transport electronic components, clothes, shoes, etc., carton boxes are needed for packaging. Currently, it is possible to recover used carton boxes for recycling. When recycling to turn them into carton boxes, a lot of water, energy and fuel are used. This is one of the industries that is considered to easily pollute the environment, emitting a lot of CO2. Therefore, the company must come up with many solutions to reduce pollution and emissions.

According to KOA’s research, in China, producing 1 ton of cardboard will emit 1.15 tons of CO2. In Vietnam, it is 0.91 – 0.97 tons of C02; in Europe, this figure is 0.45 tons of C02. At KOA’s factory, the amount of emissions is equivalent to that of environmental protection companies in Europe. To do this, the company had to limit energy consumption as much as possible, using modern technology and production lines from Japan. Japanese paper production technology is unique, different from that in Vietnam. Looking at it, it can be seen that KOA’s cardboard production line is shorter than the basic paper production lines in Vietnam. This shortened process reduces the paper drying process. That helps save a lot of energy. KOA’s factory also uses gas as fuel while other factories burn coal.

Regarding the wastewater issue, Mr. Shimada Takahiro said that in Vietnam, other factories use glue to glue and waterproof cardboard. However, KOA factory does not use glue but uses a substance to increase durability and waterproofing for paper. Glue is like starch paste, if used in large quantities, it will pollute the wastewater. The more starch is used, the dirtier the wastewater becomes. The proof is that when using input waste sources in Vietnam, there is a lot of glue and starch, so the water is very dirty. On the contrary, at KOA factory and factories in Europe, using a substance to increase durability helps reduce the dirt in the water.

“In Vietnam, wastewater standards are very high, so many advanced devices are needed to meet the standards. I hope other companies will also use advanced technology to help reduce wastewater pollution,” Shimada Takahiro advised, adding that the KOA factory uses a boiler to recover heat, which also helps reduce emissions.

Because the input materials for making paper are mostly waste paper in the city, there are many impurities. Therefore, after production, the factory does not send waste out but recycles it. The amount of waste discharged annually by the factory is about 38,000 tons, which is used as raw material to recover heat. The heat emitted is used as energy for the production process, reducing emissions and greenhouse gases. With this solution, it helps reduce 24,500 tons of C02 equivalent to emissions into the environment each year. Currently, the factory’s emissions are about 100 tons. If this method is used, it will reduce ¼ of C02 emissions into the environment.