Paper, board and packaging products gain desired qualities with the aid of filling and coating agents. The Finnish forest industry annually spends over a billion euro on substances which are classified as chemicals. About 75% of these are harmless natural substances, such as china clay, calcium carbonate and talc. 

Finnish manufacturers have specialised in printing and writing papers that involve a very high level of value-added input. Mineral substances can account for over half the weight of, for example, coated fine paper.

The Finnish paper industry uses about 3-3.5 million tonnes of minerals for coating and filling each year when producing paper products for 100 million people main export markets beeing in Europe.

Valuable chemicals are recovered and reused

Pulp-making chemicals are almost entirely recovered and reused in the manufacturing process. In bleaching, chlorine has been replaced by chemicals that are less harmful to the environment, such as chlorine dioxide and oxygen-based substances like hydrogen peroxide and ozone.

The scope of REACH does not include natural substances, such as minerals. REACH is not applied to mechanical pulp, cellulose or minerals.

REACH means responsibility to share information

REACH is of relevance to the forest industry mainly because it is a downstream user and, as such, shares responsibility for obtaining information about chemical exposure.

REACH covers some chemicals produced by the forest industry, such as bleaching chemicals in some circumstances and by-products put on the market like tall oil. 

The forest industry supports the goals of REACH; it is important to increase awareness of health and environment issues as well as to find harmless substitutes for hazardous materials. At the same time it is important that the REACH system is developed with a reasonable cost level and practical functionality in mind.