Handmade Papermaking in India: A Sustainable Production System

Vivek Kumar and R. C. Maheswari

Centre for rural Development & Technology Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Hauz-khas, New Delhi-110016 E-mail: vivek150@hotmail.com

Abstract: The paper industry is a forest based industry. Depleting forest cover is a major cause of concern. This paper highlights the tremendous possibilities of handmade paper making in India, which with its eco-friendly and environmentally cleaner production technology will be an appropriate sustainable production system. Handmade paper is defined as a sheet of paper or board produced by hand. In 1995 the production of handmade paper and board was 13,000 tonnes valued at Rs. 250 million which is 0.4 % of the total paper production in India. The export value of handmade paper and products would be Rs. 70 million, indicating the high potential of the industry as an exportable commodity. The raw materials used in handmade papermaking are the waste products of the textile industries, different bast fibres which are locally available and recycled secondary fibres. Most of the HMP in India use cotton rags, both white and colored or waste paper. When plant fibres requiring cooking and bleaching are necessary, the effluent needs treatment. Handmade papermaking units can make many specialty papers, the demands on which are limited and therefore uneconomical to produce on a conventional paper machine. In the case of handmade paper the maximum limit of recycling is almost double, i.e., 8 times, primarily due to milder conditions of processing the raw material into a sheet of paper. Handmade paper also shows a better strength isotropy than machine paper. The fibres of handmade paper are shaken in 4 different directions, while the fibres of machine made paper are only shaken from side to side or their movement is frozen immediately on twin wire paper machines. Improved formation can be acheived in handmade paper. Research is also being carried out on the treatment of final effluent by water hyacinth and natural polyelectrolytes. Possibility of reusing treated water is also being studied so that Zero effluent Mill status can be achieved. Keywords: Bast fibre, Employment potential, Handmade paper, Sustainable development, Secondary fibre, Zero effluent

1. Introduction Misuse of natural resources has come close to testing the earths capacity to its limits. In less than 200 years, the earth has lost six million Km2 of forest. The sediment load from soil erosion has risen 3-fold in major river basins and 8-fold in smaller and more intensively used ones, water withdrawals has grown from 100 to 3600 Km2 a year. Yet the paradox is that a large proportion of the worlds population is poor. One in five hasnt got enough food, 25% are without safe drinking water, and millions of children die every year due to malnutrition and preventable diseases. There is a need to promote and perfect an ethic for living sustainably. A new kind of development is necessary, coupled

with significant changes in attitudes and practices (1). Sustainable development is meeting the needs of the present without compromising on the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (2). Basically, sustainable development is a process in which the exploitation of resources, the direction of investments, the orientation of technological development and the institutional charges are all made consistent with present as well as future needs (3). In 1980, a world conservation strategy was published. Conservation is both protection and rational use of natural resources. The conservation strategy has emphasized three objectives, namely: (i) Essential ecological processes and life support systems must be maintained. (ii) Genetic diversity must be preserved, and (iii) Any use of species on ecosystems must be sustainable. In 1987, the World Commission on Environment and Development promoted the understanding of global interdependence and the relationship between economics and the environment, focusing on the need for sustainable development. The governments agreed on an Environmental perspective to year 2000 and beyond in 1987 defining a broad framework to guide environmentally sound development. (4)

2. Status of Indian Paper Industry Paper Industries like steel, cement, chemical and fertilizer, are known for polluting the atmosphere. Like all manufacturing industries, the pulp and paper sector takes a mixture of raw materials (wood /non-wood), and processed material (chemicals/fuel) and converts them into a mixture of furnished and partially finished goods. At all stages of the processing chain, wastes products are generated. Moreover, the paper industry is forest based and depleting forest cover is a major cause of concern. However, in India non-woody material like agro-residue and various grasses are being used as a good substitute for wood but that is also very high in environmental costs. Examples from other industrialized nations indicate that it is already too late for the Indian pulp and paper industry and we shouldnt wait any longer to take action. The present, environmentally unfriendly production technology and raw material are two basic issues, which must be addressed for survival. Its time for policy makers to think and decide the future trends of the industry in the coming years. This paper highlights the tremendous possibilities for handmade paper making in India, which with its eco-friendly and environmentally cleaner production technology will be an appropriate sustainable production system (5).

3. Handmade Papermaking in India Handmade paper is a sheet of paper or board produced by hand. If the sheet is formed by means of a cylinder mould and vat or on a fourdiner table, it cannot be called a han dmade paper even if the subsequent operations are carried out discontinuously. It should, however, be noted that the Khadi and Village Industry Commission (KVIC) includes paper and boards made in the cylinder mould machine (CMM) with a definite maximum deckle width of up to 102 cm. The All India Khadi and Village Industries Board was established in 1953 and it includes the handmade paper industry in its development program. The above board later became the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC), which further encouraged this industry through financial assistance and

technological assistance such as introducing new equipment, new techniques, developing new varieties of paper, utilizing locally available diverse raw materials and helping entrepreneurs in their marketing efforts. The handmade paper units also enjoy several fiscal concessions and incentives such as central excise duty and sales tax exemptions in some States (6). Due to the above supporting program of the KVIC the number of handmade paper units grew from 35 in 1953 to more than 350 In 1993-94. In 1953, the value of handmade paper production was hardly Rs. 500,000 but it was more in 1993 than Rs. 150 million. The employment potential of the handmade paper industry is large. It employs 7,500 people of whom 50% are women. The total wage bill amounts to over Rs. 42.5 million. Table 1. gives details of the number of units, production and sale values, employment and wages.

Table 1: Performance of Handmade Paper units Year No. of working Units 40 108 176 300 325 344 350 Employment in 800 1 4 4 5 6 7 7.5 Production Rs. Lakhs (100,000s) 5 24 81 724 853 1210 1532 Sales Wages Rs. Lakhs (100,000s) 1.7 9.1 26.24 194.0 256.0 337.0 426.0

1953-54 1960-61 1971-72 1989-90 1990-91 1991-92 1992-93

5 21 87 749 921 1238 1605

Source: Review Reports of HMPI

In 1995 the production of handmade paper & board was 13,000 tones valued at Rs. 250 million which is 0.4 % of the total production of paper in India. The export value of handmade paper and products would be Rs. 70 million, indicating the high potential of the industry as an exportable commodity. The handmade papermaking units are scattered throughout the country with more concentration in U.P., Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Kerala. The capacity of the units range from 50 kgs to 700 kgs per day. Registered institutions, cooperative societies, private entrepreneurs and individual artisans own the units. KVIC has an ambitious national program of increasing the production capacity to 60,000 tonnes (1.2% of the total projected paper production in India) by the year 2002 (7). Table 2 shows various raw materials used in the handmade paper making.

Table 2 : Raw materials used in Handmade Papermaking S.NO. 1. RAW MATERIAL Rag PROCESS Cooking CHEMICAL USED 3-4% NaOH, 6-8% Na2CO3 or 15%Ca(OH)2 Hypochlorite+ lime or H2O2+Na2CO3 +Na2SiO3 CONDITIONS 6-8 hrs. 130-1400C Bath ratio-1:3 AVAILABILITY White and new rags, old whites, threads and color rags from cotton textile industry, tailors, denim fabric industry and hosiery market REMARKS Soda silicate can be used up to 40%, when NaOH is being used

Bleaching

2-2.5 hrs

80% brightness can be achieved Ledger paper, Filter paper, Drawing paper, Bible or Skin Paper Cotton mills Very high tear strength

2.

Cotton linters

Pressure Cooking

6-8% NaOH

2-4 hrs. Bath ratio-1:3

3.

Jute and Kenaf

Pressure Cooking

NaOH+Na2SO3 as 14% Na2O NaOH+Na2SO3 as high as 20% Na2O 15% NaOH+ 5-10% H2O2 NaOH+Na2SO3 20% NaOH

4 hrs. 160-1650C

West Bengal, Bihar, Assam

High strength but very low brightness. Shopping bags, cover, tags, folders etc.

Open Cooking

8-10 hrs. 2hrs. Bath ratio-1:10 4hrs. 1450C Bath ratio-1:5 Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Tamil Nadu Uttar Pradesh Herbaceous and dioecious plant Produced in India for narcotic as well as medicinal values High tensile strength and brightness level upto 65% IS0 Used in tissue and cigarette tissue paper -

4.

Kenaf and Mesta Sun Hemp Common Hemp

Open Cooking

5. 6.

Pressure Cooking Pressure Cooking

Bleaching

Hypo, chlorination and then hypo 1hrs. Bath ratio-1:8 20 hrs. 2hrs., 1350C Bath ratio-1:6 Orissa, Kerala and Karnatka Maharashtra, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh

80% ISO brightness

7.

Sisal

Open Cooking Soaking Pressure cooking Bleaching Water

Dark in color but impart high porosity and absorption capacity Extremely thin transparent like papers, good quality strong tissues and decorative papers. Banana pulp is superior to Rag pulp

8.

Banana

8% NaOH O2 diglinification+ hypochlorite bleaching

Open cooking

.05% EDTA+8% NaOH+2% H2O2

4hrs. Bath ratio-1:6

9.

Ankhada

Soaking

15% Na2CO3

70 hrs., 400C 139 hrs., 400C

Gujrat, Punjab, Bihar and Rajasthan

94% yield and 49% ISO brightness

30% Na2CO3

94% yield and 55% ISO brightness 75% ISO brightness so it is possible to produce TCF pulp

Bleaching

1%hypo

10.

Waste paper

Soaking

Mild dose of NaOH and deinking chemicals

12 hrs.

Pulp substitutes and high grade deinking waste

Admix with other high strength pulps

4. Handmade Paper: A Sustainable Production System 1. The raw materials used in handmade papermaking are the waste products of the textile industry, different bast fibres available locally and recycled secondary fibres. Almost all bast fibres, leaf fibres and cotton and linter fibres are from annual plants and therefore have short renewable cycles. 2. Pulping of these raw materials is based on the use of non-polluting chemicals such as lime, soda ash, caustic soda, oxalates, oxygen, and peroxides. It is not necessary to use harmful chemicals like alkali sulphide and sulphite, chlorine and chlorine compounds for the delignification processes. There is hardly any pollution or negative impact on environment. Most of the HMP in India uses cotton rags, both white and colored or waste paper. When white rags are used, there is no cooking and bleaching and the discharged effluent contains very low levels of BOD and COD, however the effluent contains considerable fibre debris, which must be removed and separated. When plant fibres requiring cooking and bleaching are necessary, the effluent needs treatment. A simple method is to install a few tanks and then treat the wastewater with lime, which reduces the COD and the AOX content considerably. In some extreme cases, alum can be added to the effluent to flocculate the color and COD containing organic substances. 3. Handmade papermaking units can make many of the specialty papers, whose demands are limited and therefore uneconomical to produce on a conventional paper machine. These varieties include fancy and decorative base paper, personalized stationary paper, deckle edge papers, ultra thin backing paper, permanent paper for museums, archives, and libraries, durable paper for certificates, legal documents etc.

4. Recycling reduces considerably the papermaking potential of pulps. It is generally agreed that recycling causes a major reduction in breaking length, burst and fold and a lesser reduction in stretch and apparent density. The principal cause of these changes is the reduced bonding ability, which in turn is due to reduced fibre swelling. It is generally said that the maximum recycling limit should be 4 times. In the case of handmade paper this maximum limit is almost double, i.e., 8 times, due primarily milder conditions of processing the raw material to a sheet paper. 5. Handmade paper shows a better strength isotropy than machine paper. The fibres of handmade paper are shaken in 4 different directions, while fibres of machine made paper are only from shaken side to side or their movement is frozen immediately on the twin wire type of paper machines. Improved formation can be acheived in handmade paper. There are less direction-oriented fibres on the sheet. 6. Hands made papers are dried without any restraint and hence have natural shrinkage. 7. Neutral or alkaline sizing with a small percentage of alum or without it enables production relatively more permanent, semi permanent and durable paper. It has now been proved, that ancient paper sheets of oriental origin have higher permanency than those of European origin. This is due to the selection of raw materials as well as their

subsequent processing into paper. The long lasting character of handmade paper is sometimes attributed to gelatin sizing and mild cooking and drying conditions.

5. Problems and Emerging Solutions in HMP Units Bits of dirt and specks are invariably found in sheets of handmade paper, however in mottled or decorative papers this is not so serious. But in white or semi white sheets, such as drawing and art paper or stationery papers it speaks of low quality. The proper selection of raw materials, careful cleaning of work areas, drying of sheets in covered halls, a sense of cleanliness and good housekeeping could solve the problem to a great extent. Although pride is taken in the fact that no two sheets are the same with HMP, uniformity in basis weight, color, whiteness and general appearance are important parameters of quality which can be achieved through a professional and scientific methods of operation. When chemicals are added to stock, they must be weighed and not simply put into the beater. To maintain stock consistency, the stock-water level should be maintained by painting level marks on the beater. The new Japanese method of sheet formation and a the European method of stock recirculation in the vat are things that can be adopted for finer varieties of HMP. For improvement in sheet formation of thinner grades of paper, the use of formation aids should be taught to the papermakers. The formation aids could be either synthetic chemicals or preferably vegetative mucilages. The vegetable mucilage controls the fibre dispersion as well as the drainage rate. Mucilage of Cactus (Opiuntia belloni) has been tested with good results. In the present work various locally available plants materials such as the seed of the Ban Tulsi seed, the wild variety of Bhindi (Ambrettie) etc. are identified and their efficacy on various fibres is being graded. Ambrettie used with jute and rag fibres have shown very good results. Similarly, the ban tulsi seed imparts good drainage characteristics. These aids also improve fibre retention, hence the loss of fibre reduces by up to 50%. Research is also being carried out on the treatment of the final effluent by water hyacinth and natural polyelectrolytes. The possibility of reusing treated water is being studied so that Zero effluent Mill status can be achieved.

6. Conclusion The hand made paper industry with minimum effluent discharge and small size units allows a large canvas for mill location taking advantage of several options such as proximity to consumer or exporter centers, easy accessibility for transportation of supplies and products to various consumer centers, as well as a large employment potential. As the Indian economy is a rural economy, this production system will not only stop the wealth drain from rural to urban areas but also establish a strong industrial base for rural development.

References
Caring for the Earth- A strategy for Sustainable Living published by The World Conservation Union UNEP and WWF. Gland, Switzerland. October (1991). Islam J (1994) Sustainable Development of Pulp and Paper industry: Indian Perspective. IPPTA. 6(1) Khandekar V, Bhoomaiah, Singh SN, Panda A (1995) Handmade Papermaking in India- Prospects, Possibilities and Problems. 2nd International Seminar on Pulp & Paper Industry New Delhi December News Bulletin No. 20, July 1992 of associated industrial Consultants (INDIA) Pvt. Ltd. & Trans Environ Consultants Pvt. Ltd. Bombay. Rao NJ. (1992) Sustainable Production of Pulp and Paper in India. IPPTA. 4 (1) Report of the Conference on Ecologically Sustainable Industrial development. General conference of UNIDO. Vienna. November (1991). Review Reports of Handmade Paper Industry published by KVIC (1997).