The Canadian paper and forest products industry has demonstrated solid and continuous environmental improvement.
The Canadian forest products industry harvests less than 1% of available timber per year and replants every single tree, between 400 million and 600 million seedlings annually.[1]
Since the early 1990s, the Canadian forest sector has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 70%.[1]
Canada’s pulp and paper effluent regulations govern the discharge of harmful substances from pulp and paper mills into water frequented by fish. Since 1985, the quality of pulp and paper effluent (wastewater) released directly to the environment, as set out in the regulations, has improved considerably. Effluent tests met regulatory standards 25% of the time in 1985 and 97.4% of the time in 2020. Tests for biochemical oxygen demand and total suspended solids met regulatory standards 68% and 60% of the time, respectively, in 1985. Both tests met the standards 99.9% of the time in 2020.[2]