The Paper Manufacturers Association of South Africa (PAMSA) was originally founded in 1992 to serve the pulp and paper industry’s education and training needs. Three decades on and a vastly different socio-economic landscape, PAMSA supports the sector in areas of environmental stewardship, waste and recycling, education and training, research and innovation, and industry promotion.
Key to PAMSA’s work is the promotion of the forest sector from which fibre is sustainably sourced for a variety of wood and pulp based products, also known has harvested wood products.
Paper is a harvested wood product and is more than copy paper. It is the box that gets your online shopping order safely to your door. It contains your cereal, labels your glass jars and bottles, bags your sugar and keeps your milk fresh. Paper is also the book on your bedside table or your weekend newspaper. And of course, it’s the toilet roll in your bathroom.
Pulp is also used to make cellulose-based products such as textiles (viscose and rayon), sponges, cosmetics, lotions and ingredients that serve as carriers for medicines and emulsifiers in foods.
Several products are also made from recycled fibre which comes from paper products we use every day such as used office paper, cardboard boxes, paper packaging, magazines and newspapers.
The sector also recovers by-products from its processes for re-use and other applications. Substances such as black liquor can be used as a fuel in its process while lignosulphonates, sugars and sludge find applications in a variety of areas.
From being an advocate on legislative and policy matters on behalf of its members to engaging with civil society locally and abroad, PAMSA ensures that harvested wood products are seen as renewable and commercially viable materials in communication, packaging and innovative alternatives to fossil-based substrates.
Wood and paper products are as renewable as you can get. In South Africa, harvested wood products are not sourced urban trees or indigenous forests but rather from farmed trees that are planted, grown, harvested and regrown or replanted in an environmentally responsible and future-focused manner. And timber harvesting is should never be misconstrued as deforestation which is the removal of trees without replanting.
PAMSA represents more than 90% of pulp, paper, board and tissue manufacturers in South Africa with its members including Corruseal, Kimberly-Clark, Mondi South Africa, Mpact, Neopak, and Sappi Southern Africa.
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