Circular Calcium Carbonate – Making industrial minerals circular

Synopsis

Calcium carbonate is a workhorse for many industries that use the mineral as an extender or filler in their products (paper, paints, plastics, rubber, adhesives, etc). Paper mill sludge (PMS) is the largest waste stream in the paper industry. Generated in the water treatment facilities at paper mills, it consists of waste cellulose fibres and paper fillers like calcium carbonate and kaolin. Alucha developed technology to recover the calcium carbonate fillers from the PMS waste stream in such a way that these can be used again as fillers in consumer products. We call our fillers Circular Calcium Carbonate (CCC). Circular calcium carbonate by Alucha increases the recycled content in products, reduces the use of primary resources and contributes to the sustainability of our planet. Alucha aims to open its first CCC production (Mine2) next year in the Netherlands. A pilot test plant (Mine1) is now operational at the same location.