His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales yesterday visited the UPM Shotton mill in North Wales, UK, to celebrate the conversion of the Mill to using 100% recovered fibre to produce its newsprint. The Prince was returning to the Mill after 19 years having first visited back in 1985 when he opened UPM Shotton.
The Prince took a full tour of the Mill to see the investment that has been made since his last visit, including the construction of the world's biggest single de-inking line which facilitated the full conversion to recovered fibre last November. He toured the Mill guided by Hartmut Wurster, President of UPM's Newsprint Division and David Ingham, Vice President of the Shotton Mill.
The Prince commented on the environmental benefits of the conversion project and said that he felt UPM had achieved something remarkable. He went on to say that the project shows that manufacturers can achieve environmental benefit and remain commercially viable.
'The project was significant for UPM last year costing EUR 127 million. The Shotton mill is now one of the most modern newsprint paper mills in the world," said Hartmut Wurster talking to the guests of the celebration which included Shotton customers, local authority representatives and project partners.
UPM Shotton's conversion has enabled the collection of waste paper from 10,000,000 UK households making a significant impact on the UK Government's recycling targets. This major contribution to national recycling improvements led to a EUR 24 million contribution to the conversion project through the Governments Waste & Resource Action Programme (WRAP).
The mill's production capacity is 500,000 tonnes which allows a processing capacity of 700,000 tonnes of recovered paper. Today UPM is the world's largest user of recycled fibre in the graphic paper industry. The company uses 2.3 million tonnes of recovered paper annually for production of newsprint and magazine grades at its European mills.
For a full copy of the Prince of Wales' speech, please contact Clarence House Press Office, tel. +44 (0)207 024 5508
For further information, please contact:
Mr. Hartmut Wurster, President, UPM, Newsprint Division, tel. + 49 (0)821 3109 264
Mr. David Ingham, Vice President and General Manager, UPM, Shotton,
tel. +44 (0)1244 28 4407
UPM
Corporate Communications
July 13, 2004
