From 2010 to 2011 the company’s ratio of waste recovered compared to waste produced increased around 2.5 percent from 63.6 percent to 65.1 percent. Its 2012 target is 67.4 percent. Paper making waste accounts for 98 percent of the residual materials generated by the company’s activities. The progress on this goal is due in large part to the efforts from the Cascades Groupe Carton Plat-Joncquière plant in Canada, which re-used more mixed residual waste in 2011, the report says.

Cascades’ landfilling rate – measured as kg of solid waste sent to landfill per metric ton of saleable product – dropped by just under 24 percent, from 3.59 kg per metric ton in 2010 to 2.74 in 2011. The company attributes the improvement to an increase in the recycling rate of several categories of materials. But, again, decrease in sales year on year impacted the figures.

The company is targeting sourcing 86.3 percent of its fibers from FSC-certified sources or recycled fibers by 2012. Progress on this metric has flatlined year on year, with 83 percent of fibers coming from those sources in 2010 versus 82.9 percent in 2011.

The report describes the company’s objective to increase the use of recycled fibers and certified virgin fibers as “ambitious over such a short period of time.” It also points out that Cascades managed to stay basically static in this metric despite a record increase in the cost of recycled fibers over the course of the year.

Cascades’ discharge of effluent fell from 12.6 to 12.3 cubic metres of water per metric ton of saleable product year-on-year. This represents a drop of almost 2.5 percent. The company is targeting a 6 percent drop by 2012.

Cascades says that its East Angus plant’s transition from kraft pulp production – a process that uses a lot of water – to recycled water-based production had a positive impact on this metric.

In November last year, Cascades released a highly-absorbent paper towel that can be produced using 100 percent recycled fiber and fewer chemicals than other absorbent tissues. The Cascades Elite uses the “Atmos” process originally developed by a Voith Paper research center in Brazil, and based on “Through-Air-Dried,” or TAD, technology. The TAD process yields fluffy and absorbent towels, but uses mostly virgin fiber to do so, Cascades says.