CAQA Riverside Pulp and Paper
CAQA Riverside Pulp and Paper makes packaging papers from recovered fibre and plantation woodchip at an integrated mill in the Latrobe Valley. The mill produces about 190,000 tonnes a year of linerboard and fluting for corrugated box makers, together with a smaller volume of bleached kraft pulp sold to tissue and specialty paper customers. Recovered cardboard and office paper arrive from collection contractors and the Dandenong South depot, woodchip arrives by truck from plantation contractors, and finished reels leave by road and rail to box plants across south-eastern Australia. The business supplies packaging converters, food and beverage manufacturers, fresh produce exporters and export pulp buyers.
The mill runs continuously on a four-panel, twelve-hour rotating roster with day and night crews. Operations are organised into Pulping, Stock Preparation and the Paper Machine; Recovered Fibre and De-inking; Steam, Power, Water and Chemical Recovery; Finishing, Converting and Warehouse; Health, Safety and Environment; and Site Leadership, Planning and Quality. The kraft pulp line includes a digester, brown stock washing, bleach plant and a chemical recovery loop with a recovery boiler and lime kiln. The power boiler and turbine supply most of the site's steam and electricity, and the effluent treatment plant discharges to the river under licence.
Riverside operates under an environmental operating licence, a major hazard facility style safety case for its chemical inventory, and pressure equipment inspection requirements for its boilers and digester. The site holds chain of custody certification for its fibre and runs a quality system certified to the international quality management standard. Safety is managed through the permit to work and isolation system, job safety analyses, toolbox talks, operator preventative maintenance and a hazard and incident register reviewed daily at the production meeting. Environmental discharges and emissions are monitored continuously and reported monthly to the regulator, and every exceedance is investigated as an incident.