Loo roll factory turns waste into animal bedding
EssityA factory making Cushelle toilet paper and Plenty kitchen towels believes it is the first manufacturer to turn a waste by-product into animal bedding.
The Essity Stubbins paper mill recycles about 70,000 tonnes of waste into toilet roll every year, but previously a percentage of that was lost during the recycling process.
Now, the mill said it had been able to dehydrate additional waste paper crumb, and turn it into a product used for animal bedding instead of going to landfill.
Renee O'Mahony, the mill's environmental specialist, said it is used "on farms for chicks and different animals, and it's a very valuable sought-after product because it's good for their welfare."
The Stubbins paper mill in Ramsbottom was founded in 1911, and now makes paper using recycled fibre.
But the organisation say they lose some of the fibre in the recycling process, with approximately 40% previously being classified as a waste product.
O'Mahony said: "What we have been trying to work towards is making that into a useful product".
Now more than half of the waste product is turned into animal bedding, with Essity saying it was trying to work out a way to use all of it.
Essity is the the world's second largest supplier of consumer tissue, with six factories in the UK.
The mill at Stubbins produces about 150 tonnes of paper roll a day, sold as Plenty household towels and Cushelle toilet paper.
The company said it wants to roll out the technology to its other mills in Trafford and Northumberland.
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