Irish paper and packaging company Smurfit Kappa is to invest more than €30 million in two sustainability projects in Spain.
More than 12,000 solar panels were unveiled at the company’s Sangüesa paper mill, which will work alongside its biomass and recovery boilers to generate more than 50 per cent of its annual energy requirements, the equivalent to powering 3,600 homes.
The photovoltaic system, which is the largest of its kind in the Navarra region, is set to reduce the mill’s annual CO2 emissions by more than 3,000 tonnes and represents an investment of €6 million.
Since 2005, the Sangüesa paper mill has reduced its CO2 emissions by more than 51 per cent, Smurfit Kappa said.
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The second investment of €27 million in its Nervión paper mill will see the mill adopt a fully circular production process involving the biggest landfill reduction project Smurfit Kappa has undertaken to date.
The project is set to remove 75,000 tonnes of waste from landfill, and additionally, eliminate approximately 450,000km per year in road transport.
Garrett Quinn, chief sustainability officer at Smurfit Kappa, said: “These two projects demonstrate the group’s continued investment to deliver on its sustainability goals with over €30 million in these two projects alone, delivering reduced emissions, and increasing the circularity of our production process.”
The launch of the two events were attended by Smurfit Kappa chief executive Tony Smurfit.
Separately, US paper packaging group WestRock last week caved in to giving additional details on its $25 billion-plus (€23 billion) merger with Smurfit Kappa to lower the risk of it being delayed by litigation.
Several shareholders had alleged that documents on the deal omitted “material information”.
Smurfit Kappa, Ireland’s first multinational company, aims to complete the tie-up in early July, subject to its shareholders giving their approval at an extraordinary general meeting this week.
The agreement to create Smurfit WestRock, the world’s largest cardboard box maker with about $34 billion of annual revenue was announced last September.
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