The environmental footprint continues to be reduced at the Kimberly-Clark Australia Millicent Mill with a massive drop in water usage in the last calendar year.

The plant reduced its water consumption by 9% compared to the previous year.

The reduction was due to operational improvements on one of its two remaining tissue machines.

“As we have an extensive industrial wastewater treatment plant, we are currently in discussions with local famers to explore the feasibility of using the Mill’s wastewater on their sites,” stated Ithe company in its annual sustainability report.

“In 2022, we reduced our emissions by 34% against our 2015 baseline, whilst continuing to explore alternative, renewable energy sources at our Millicent Mill.

“We are working closely with partners to enable our zero-manufacturing waste to landfill goal and overcome some challenges to manage our final 2% of waste.

“The KCA Millicent Mill is proud to be diverting nearly all materials from landfill and remain focused on seeking solutions for this remaining volume.

“We continue to work towards our Australian Packaging Covenant Organisation commitments and are proud to report that we have cut a total of 955 tonnes of plastics across our products and packaging since 2020.

“The Millicent Mill is working hard to launch new packaging innovations to reduce the use of new, fossil-fuel based plastic, including introducing more recycled content.”

The report noted the Millicent manufacturing team’s most recent project was also of an environmental nature.

“They decided to spend their annual volunteer day planting 1000 trees around our Millicent Mill to support bushland regeneration and improve biodiversity,” the report said.

Across its global operations, Kimberly- Clark is working towards cutting direct emissions by 50% by 2030, against a 2015 baseline.

In Australia, it is exploring how internal changes and innovative technology such as Artificial Intelligence can contribute towards improving our efficiencies.

“We have also partnered with energy technology company Ent to assess the potential of a Green Hydrogen Hub at the Millicent Mill which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from other gas and fuel energy streams.

“Last year, we conducted a pre-feasibility project, but to understand this opportunity further, we will be working towards a full feasibility study.”