Firm makes paper out of rice, wheat

A leading Taiwanese paper company has developed a technique to make paper from wheat and rice stalks, a report said yesterday.

Yuen Foong Yu (永豐餘) is to introduce what it says is a “revolutionary” technology to its plant in Yangzhou, in China’s Jiangsu Province, in the second half of the year, the Economic Daily News said on its Web site.

The technology was considered environmentally friendly because it uses materials that have been thrown away for a long time and fewer trees will be cut down, the conglomerate’s chairman Ho Shou-chuan (何壽川) was cited as saying.

The normal wood pulp manufacturing process uses 100kg of lumber to make 20kg of paper, but the new technology can turn the same quantity of stalk pulp into four times as much paper, the report said.

“The new manufacturing process will be more energy saving and cause less carbon dioxide,” Ho said.

In related news, last week, Yuen Foong Yu said it planned to buy a Chinese company for US$1.05 -million via a subsidiary to get a license to tap into China’s food and beverage market. The company said the acquisition would allow it to explore business opportunities in China’s organic food -delivery business, in which it has done well in its home market. Shares of Yuen Foong Yu dropped 0.7 percent to NT$14.1 on Friday, while the benchmark TAIEX fell 0.03 percent.

(Source: http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2011/01/17/2003493676)