Circular economy of a papermaking park in China: a case study

Papermaking is regarded as an industry that consumes a great amount of energy and produces serious pollution. The papermaking industry in China, which has a large population and rapid economic development, is indispensable and presents a trend of rapid development. China and the rest of the world pay considerable attention to resource conservation and environmental protection. Therefore, determining how the papermaking industry can realize cleaner production and sustainable development is an urgent issue that should be addressed. This paper introduces Guangdong Silver Island Lake (GSIL) Papermaking Park, which realizes cleaner production and sustainable development by developing circular economy (CE). This park constructs a CE industrial mode by recycling energy, water, and materials. After 10 years of implementation, the CE plan of GSIL Papermaking Park has integrated the resources of the papermaking and power industries horizontally, thus forming the unique development mode of its CE. The resource consumption, resource comprehensive utilization, and pollutant emission indexes of the park have reached the advanced level in the papermaking industry of China.