PGT Makes Paper Pulp from Palm Oil Waste

Pulp Green Tech (PGT), which owns Thai Gorilla Pulp in Thailand, says it has made high-grade quality paper pulp from 100 percent palm oil waste material, called empty fruit bunches or EFBs (pictured).

The company says more than 95 percent of raw material EFBs are disposed and estimates the waste material weighs more than 300 million tons a year.

The technology enables investors, palm oil producers and paper pulp mills to achieve ROI of over 100 percent in the first year of operation, assuming the pulp is sold at a price of comparable non-wood materials, PGT says.

Through Thai Gorilla Pulp, the company sells the palm pulp (or the end product made of palm pulp) to Europe, Malaysia, and locally in Thailand. It plans to expand its technology to Malaysia and Indonesia this year, and says it’s preparing to form a partnership with paper mills/palm oil producers in the region.

The World Resources Institute calls palm oil a sustainability story to watch in 2014; this month alone Mondelez International said it achieved Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil coverage for 100 percent of the palm oil it bought in 2013, two years ahead of schedule. L’Oréal says by 2015, 100 percent palm oil and major palm derivatives should come from known sources and by 2020, 100 percent of its palm supply will be free from deforestation.