For Quality and Nature Conservation:
Our Water Management
The guideline for our water management is the EU Water Framework Directive of 2000. Its aim is to prevent and reduce pollution and promote sustainable water use. We also rely on the use of high-quality water for the production of our paper and corrugated cardboard products.
This is why we see it as our responsibility to protect this valuable resource and minimise our water consumption. Among other things, cutting-edge wastewater treatment systems play a key role here. They clean the water used in production, enabling it either to be safely released back into watercourses or reused in production.
The data in this area may be out of date. Our new sustainability report is here. Download it now.
„Good water management can reduce risks and help to ensure that water remains available as a common global resource.“
„Good water management can reduce risks and help to ensure that water remains available as a common global resource.“
GRI 303-1
Water Consumption
Water Consumption (m3)
Our target for 2020 will be to reduce our specific
water consumption by 4 %.
GRI 303-1
Water Consumption by Source
Water Consumption by Source (m3)
Surface
Ground
Rain
Municipal
Total Water: 11,231,622
GRI 303: Water Consumption
GRI 303: Water Consumption
Case VPK Packaging Group, Belgium:
Protecting Precious Lifelines – Water Purification at Oudegem
Being located next to the river Dender, the paper mill at Oudegem was always able to rely on an abundant supply of fresh water. However, this supply met with high demand: As the Dender runs through a heavily industrialised area of Belgium with a lot of agglomerations in the vicinity, this has put a certain degree of stress on the river. Due to tremendous and continuous efforts of the local communities and industry, water quality has improved significantly over the past couple of years and aquatic life in the river has started to flourish again. To support this trend, VPK is now striving to recycle as much water as possible, and to purify water before discharging it in a completely safe quality.
But VPK is not stopping there. For some applications at Oudegem, water from underground or municipal sources was needed, offering a higher quality. To avoid any negative impact on these two precious sources of water and to generate high-quality water for its plant, VPK decided to build a state-of-the-art water treatment system to purify water from the river.
This is done in a first phase by removing suspended solids from the water with the help of a coagulant in a flocculation tank. Afterwards, the water is purified using a sand filter, which reduces the suspended solids by up to 95%. The second phase consists of a pressure-driven ultrafiltration membrane which works as a very fine filter, blocking material as small as 0.1 μm in size. As a result, the water doesn’t undergo chemical treatment and bacteria and viruses can also be removed.
The new water treatment system allows VPK to stop consuming groundwater altogether and to reduce consumption of municipal water to a minimum. Furthermore, VPK contributes to the reduction of desiccation of the area, and water resources for flora and fauna are preserved in the best possible way.
