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Introductory
Statement
Environmental
Principles
Principles in Practice
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Copyright
© 2001
Smurfit-Stone Container Corporation
Prepared
April 2001
Principle in Practice:
To consider environmental responsibility a top priority
Nowhere is attention to environmental responsibility more important than in a manufacturing environment. Smurfit-Stone is a manufacturing company with approximately 300 facilities in North America. Our plants and mills contain complex machinery and equipment, tools, workstations, and materials.
Smurfit-Stone's comprehensive environmental management program - which includes auditing, training, participation in regulatory development, product certification programs, and full legal and technical assistance to our manufacturing facilities - is implemented at the manufacturing level by environmental teams in all facilities. These teams are made up of manufacturing, maintenance, purchasing, and environmental staff, with management participation. Each team regularly reviews manufacturing operations at its facility in order to: (1) identify and implement changes that will reduce the risk of non-compliance with environmental laws and regulations; and (2) provide opportunities to prevent pollution.
Fiber Recycling for Re-use
Smurfit-Stone is the world's largest paper recycler. With 30 collection centers and 12 brokerage offices - one, in Shanghai, China - we operate the largest recycling business in the packaging industry. SSCC collects and processes approximately 7 million tons of recycled paper every year, of which about 48 percent is used in our own mills; and the rest is sold to customers in 30 countries on the open market. In 1999, we grew at three times the industry average.
Product Content
Smurfit-Stone's recycling business has the capacity and flexibility to handle recovered paper generated by industrial, commercial, and residential sources, including grocery and retail chains, manufacturers, offices and commercial centers, and curbside. Approximately half of the volume collected is old corrugated containers; another quarter is old newspapers; and the rest is a variety of grades, including old magazines. While recovered paper collection makes up a majority of our efforts, our recycling centers also handle aluminum cans, glass, and plastics.
Recycling Services
Recycling megacenters - located in San Jose and Oakland, California; Seattle, Washington; and St. Louis, Missouri - serve as one-stop-recycling resources for communities, waste haulers, major retailers, and manufacturers. These facilities are outfitted with sophisticated technology to collect and recycle newsprint, old corrugated containers, high-grade papers, office waste paper, aluminum cans, plastic milk jugs, and glass. State-of-the-art equipment provides our megacenters with the unique ability to receive and sort co-mingled materials, greatly simplifying the collection process and improving efficiency. In 2000, more than one million tons were collected at the megacenters; and we anticipate an increase of 300,000 tons in 2001.
Sustainable Forest Initiative
SSCC is committed to the principles embodied in the Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI). We officially adopted SFI in 1995, as did all of the other members of the American Forest and Paper Association, who represent 84 percent of the paper capacity and 90 percent of the industry-owned timberland in the U.S. SFI is considered to be the most significant action ever undertaken by our industry to sustain America's forests.
The goal of Smurfit-Stone's sustainable forestry program is to enhance our competitive position and establish the company as the preferred wood buyer in our areas of operations. We will achieve our goal by meeting both the objectives and expectations of private landowners, while broadening the practice of sustainable forestry.
Sustainable forestry employs an array of scientifically, environmentally, and economically sound practices in the growth, harvest, and use of forests. Our principles mirror those established by AF&PA for its SFI program.
- Protect the water quality in streams, lakes, and other water bodies by establishing protection measures based on soil type, terrain, vegetation, and other applicable factors and by using best management practices in all forestry operations.
- Enhance the quality of wildlife habitat by developing and implementing measures that promote habitat diversity and the conservation of plant and animal populations found in forest communities.
- Minimize the visual impacts of harvesting through the application of practices that enhance visual quality of the operation.
- Manage lands of ecological, geologic, or historic significance in a manner that accounts for their special qualities and contributes to biodiversity by enhancing landscape diversity and providing an array of habitats.
Our commitment to this program is communicated throughout all levels of the company. We are dedicated to working closely with logging and state forestry associations and others in the forestry community to further improve the professionalism of loggers by cooperating to promote the training and education of loggers.
The new sustainable forestry program grew out of the combined JSC and Stone forestry operations and the sale of the JSC timberlands. This program is unique in the forest industry, as it conducts sustainable forestry wholly on the lands of independent private landowners. All landowners who sell timber are encouraged to use best management practices and to promptly reforest harvested areas to ensure long-term forest sustainability.
Next - To recognize the environmental effects of all of our products and processes