Handmade Paper Industry: A Green and Sustainable Enterprise and Its Challenges

Abstract

AbstractDue to stringent environmental pollution, development, and implementation, green technologies have a challenge for technology developers. The handmade paper industry emerged as a green and sustainable enterprise for the high demanding paper industry. The paper industry uses raw materials containing cellulose fibers, generally wood, recycled paper, and agricultural residues. Nonwood raw materials (bagasse, cereal straw, etc.) comprise approximately 60% of cellulose fibers. The industrialized process for paper manufacturing involves many stages like raw material preparation, pulping, screening, chemical recovery, bleaching, stock preparation, and paper-making—the paper industry facing challenges of availability of raw material and environmental protection.Due to the pressure on forests, conventionally wood-based resources became scarce and uneconomical. Their scarceness has already led to a decline in capacity utilization in the Indian paper industry. Researchers try to enhance the level of sustainable development, economy, and societies. Therefore, the handmade paper industry must be developed to meet the increasing demand for paper products in an environment-friendly way. The handmade paper industry has untapped potential for environment-friendly products and production systems. Therefore, in social, environmental, and economic scenarios, papermakers must find new market opportunities while balancing their sustainability and profitability. This chapter describes sustainability and challenges for the paper industry and explains how to face this situation.KeywordsSustainabilityHandmade paperForestPulpAromatic extractionAreaSeparation Process