Forests 2022 , 13 , x FOR PEER REVIEW
14 of 22
Forests 2022 , 13 , 1856
14of 21
imports. On the other hand, due to the tight forestry resources, the external dependence on wood pulp remains high and is temporarily difficult to improve, so the CO 2 emissions of wood pulp import and transportation may continue to rise in the future. Influenced by the “Implementation Plan for Prohibiting the Entry of Foreign Waste and Promoting the Reform of Solid Waste Import Management System” released in 2017, the structure of imported raw materials for the papermaking industry is adjusted in 2018–2020, with the gap between pulp and waste paper gradually expanding and showing an opposite pattern to that of 2000–2017. 2000–2020, China’s waste paper recycling rate increases from 29.5% to 46.5%, and CO 2 emissions from domestic waste paper recycling transport are slowly increasing, from 0.08 × 10 6 t in 2000 to 0.41 × 10 6 t in 2020. Compared with paper raw material import transport, domestic waste paper recycling transport is shorter in distance and the recycling volume is lower than the sum of pulp and waste paper import volume in the same period, resulting in its CO 2 emissions being much lower than the CO 2 emissions from paper raw material import transport in the same period. stage, while the sum of CO 2 emissions from natural gas and other energy sources accounts for just under 4%. Moreover, according to the European Papermaking Industry Federation CEPI (Confederation of European Paper Industries) [52], data show that in 2016 the Euro- pean papermaking industry biomass energy consumption reached 58.82%, natural gas consumption accounted for about 33.43%, while coal accounted for only 3.96%. In partic- ular, in the Dutch papermaking industry by 2009 natural gas energy consumption ac- counted for about 97% [53]. This shows that the energy consumption structure of the pulp and paper stage of China ’ s papermaking industry is still dominated by coal and electric- ity, and the energy structure adjustment is yet to be strengthened. 3.4. CO 2 Emissions Status of the Transportation Stage CO 2 emissions from the input of paper raw materials during the transportation phase of paper products mainly include wood pulp, waste paper imports, and domestic waste paper recycling. The results are shown in Figure 5.
Figure 5. CO 2 emissions from the transportation of Chinese paper products. Figure5. CO 2 emissions from the transportation of Chinese paper products. 3.5. CO 2 Emissions Status of Waste Paper Disposal Stage Overall, from 2000 to 2020, the total CO 2 emissions from the whole life cycle trans- portation process of paper products increased from 1.59 × 10 6 t to a maximum value of 11.16 × 10 6 t within 2017 and then gradually declined to 8.07 × 10 6 t in 2020. The high de- pendence on paper raw material imports is one of the main reasons for the increase in CO 2 emissions during the whole life cycle transportation of paper products. In 2010, CO 2 emis- sions from transportation declined significantly due to high international pulp and waste paper prices and the accordingly reduced imports of paper raw materials. Comparing the CO 2 emissions of pulp and waste paper import and transportation from 2000 – 2017, the gap between the two has gradually narrowed. On the one hand, due to the gradual in- crease in China ’ s waste paper recycling rate, there has been a fluctuating decline in waste paper imports. On the other hand, due to the tight forestry resources, the external depend- ence on wood pulp remains high and is temporarily difficult to improve, so the CO 2 emis- sions of wood pulp import and transportation may continue to rise in the future. Influ- enced by the “ Implementation Plan for Prohibiting the Entry of Foreign Waste and Pro- moting the Reform of Solid Waste Import Management System ” released in 2017, the structure of imported raw materials for the papermaking industry is adjusted in 2018 – 2020, with the gap between pulp and waste paper gradually expanding and showing an The amount of CO 2 released from the waste paper landfill and waste paper incin- eration segments of the life cycle of paper products in China is shown in Figure 6. At present, the total amount of harmless domestic waste disposal in the country has been rising significantly year by year, and the development trend of incineration volume is similar to it, while the sanitary landfill volume is growing very slowly. In Figure 6, CO 2 emissions from waste paper incineration rise and those from landfill fall, with the former increasing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.17% and surpassing the latter since 2013. The total CO 2 emissions from the waste paper disposal phase also increased, with a CAGR of 7.76%. In comparison, the CO 2 emissions per unit of waste paper landfill are about 0.55 t, while the CO 2 emissions per unit of waste paper incineration are about 1.65 t, so the landfill of waste paper is more conducive to the low carbon development of paper products compared to incineration.
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker