OPERATION REVIEW FOR PAPER MILL INDUSTRY AND IMPLEMENTING ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE UNITED KNIGDOM

Abstract

There have been global concerns about changes in our climate and environment as a result of various anthropogenic activities carried out by mankind in order to sustain their existence on planet earth which have resulted to effluent and emission of dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere and water body. Environmental Management Systems (EMS) which have been applied in managing the environmental performance of any organisation by dealing with the most significant environmental impacts was implemented on the existing paper mill operations, thus facilitating the management of its day to day activities and the impact on the environment. These activities include: the use of electricity, water and chemicals. The EMS option recommended for most paper mill after considering the various type of options is BS885, which is a British Standard, used in implementing an environmental management system especially for the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This EMS option is particularly suited to the paper mill industry since most paper mills within the United Kingdom fall within the operational settings and will therefore allow paper mills to operate its EMS with time over six separate stages due to the financial constrain of the companies with variation in resource allocation during the EMS implementation. The planning stage, implementation stage will require 45% resource allocation while monitoring and audits, management review and environmental policy stage will require 30%, 45% and 25% resource allocation respectively. Significance methodology is used to determine environmental performance for the paper mill; using ≥ 21 as the significant threshold help to determine the major activities that have higher impact on the environment. Seven (7) Significance Environmental Aspects (SEA) were identified and environmental objectives and targets is been carried out in order to comply with environmental legislations governing the whole activities. This EMS implementation will help the paper mill industry to be conscious of the effect of their activities on the environment with continuous improvement to further reduce the impact while simultaneously getting certified for implementing a complete EMS later in the future.