12th April 2021 12:02 am 12th April 2021 9:25 am
Waste materials from the pulp and paper industry look set to be diverted from landfill and repurposed for road construction.
This is the aim of researchers at the University of British Colombia (UBC) Okanagan in Canada, who are particularly focussed on wood-based pulp mill fly ash (PFA), which is a non-hazardous commercial waste product.
The North American pulp and paper industry is said to generate over one million tons of ash annually by burning wood in power boiler units for energy production. When sent to a landfill, the producer pays between $25 to $50 per ton, so mills are looking for alternative usages of these by-products.