Water balance in forest industry 

Finland is known to be a country of forest and lakes. When about 78 per cent of the total area is forest land and water bodies sum on about 10 per cent, the Finnish forestry industry has a good base to operate on. Unfortunately, the case is different in many countries as globe’s fresh water resources are already limited and further diminishing. The existing global water resources are distributed unevenly thus used often unsustainably.

Metsäliitto believes that the sustainable forestry adds value to the caretaker of nature’s water supply. Paper and broad production is water-intensive as water is needed to separate wood fibers from wood logs and to form a bond between the fibres. Therefore Metsäliitto is constantly developing its water usage to be more efficient and to optimise the overall water consumption. For example at two M-real mills in Äänekoski, water is pumped from the river that runs between the mills. Water is re-circulated in the process from six to ten times, after which it is purified and returned to natural circulation via the waste water treatment plant. This is one of the examples of how forest industry has been able to decrease the water use by 90 per cent since the 1970s.

Read more about water balance and water usage in forest industry from the latest M-real Magazine (issue 1/2011).