Paper is an amazing product: it is renewable, clean and incredibly versatile. It continuously offers new possibilities, applications and end-uses.
Paper can be impregnated, enamelled, crêped, waterproofed, waxed, glazed, sensitised, bent, folded, twisted, crumpled, cut, torn, dissolved, moulded and embossed. Who knows to what uses it will be put in the future?
Today, intelligent paper used in packaging allows us to see clearly if products are past their sell-by date by changing colour, printed electronic circuits can be used instead of traditional heavy circuit boards, scratch and sniff books bring learning to life, radio identification tags allow products to be traced at every stage, and even batteries can be made from paper.
What is sure is that the European pulp and paper industry will continue to change and adapt to new market conditions, responding to consumer requirements, and moving closer to its vision of integrated sustainability and competitiveness.
Paper mills have improved enormously from an environmental point of view (waste water, emissions, etc.) as well as from an efficiency point of view (see Environment section).