UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA CRUZ
GREENING THE TIGER?
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS' INFLUENCE ON ADOPTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PULP AND PAPER
INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA, INDONESIA, AND THAILAND
A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction
of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
SOCIOLOGY
by
David Allan Sonnenfeld
September 1996
The dissertation of David Allan Sonnenfeld
is approved:
Professor Andrew Szasz, Chair
Professor Paul Lubeck
Professor James O'Connor
Dean of Graduate Studies
Copyright © by
David Allan Sonnenfeld
1996
Abstract
GREENING THE TIGER?
SOCIAL MOVEMENTS' INFLUENCE ON ADOPTION OF
ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PULP AND PAPER
INDUSTRIES OF AUSTRALIA, INDONESIA, AND THAILAND
David Allan Sonnenfeld
Few industries have grown so fast, or been so conflictual, as the pulp
and paper industries of Australia, Indonesia and Thailand in the late 1980s
and early 1990s. High-profile disputes flared in all three countries over
actual and potential impacts of pulp mill development on forest and aquatic
ecology and human health. By the mid-1990s, manufacturers in all three
countries were adopting cleaner production technologies. Do these
developments indicate the successful "greening" of these industries, including
in newly industrializing countries not known for stringent environmental
regulation? What is the relationship between environmental and community
activism and pulp firms' adoption of "green" technologies in these countries?
I sought answers to these questions in 12 months' field research,
interviews, and archival study in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
and Thailand; correspondence with individuals and organizations in Finland;
additional studies in North America; and use of available data.
I found that local activists had successfully influenced government
regulation of new and existing industry, and encouraged industry adoption of
cleaner, elementally chlorine-free (ECF), pulping and bleaching technologies
in Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Initially resistant to change, leading
pulp manufacturers in these countries modified existing processing, adopted
new technologies, produced more efficiently, and gained access to new
("green") markets. Globally, Greenpeace International played a crucial role
in encouraging development and adoption of the new technologies..
This study extends scholarship on the social construction of technology
by addressing environmental technology; Southeast Asia and Australia; the
high-tech and resource intensive, but understudied, pulp and paper industry;
social activism; restructuring of "North"-"South" trade relations; and ethnic
conflict.
v
Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................... 1
Significance ............................................................................................. 2
Development of new technologies .......................................................... 4
Case studies .......................................................................................... 10
Organization of dissertation ................................................................ 18
Chapter 2. Theory of Environmental Technology ........................ 19
Science and technology studies ............................................................ 20
Greening of industry ............................................................................ 24
Environmental planning ...................................................................... 25
Industrial ecology ................................................................................. 27
"Green business" studies ...................................................................... 30
Environmental history ......................................................................... 31
Discussion ............................................................................................. 32
Chapter 3. Research Methods ..................................................... 34
Research design .................................................................................... 37
Data collection & analysis.................................................................... 39
Problems and limitations ..................................................................... 47
Schedule ................................................................................................ 50
Chapter 4. Australia: the Ghost of Wesley Vale .......................... 51
Industry overview ................................................................................. 52
The Wesley Vale affair ......................................................................... 58
Environmental innovation ................................................................... 62
Discussion ............................................................................................. 75
Chapter 5. Indonesia: Tragedy and Innovation........................... 83
Indonesian fieldwork ............................................................................ 87
Industry overview ................................................................................. 88
Conflict at Lake Toba ........................................................................... 94
New ECF mills...................................................................................... 99
Discussion ........................................................................................... 103
Chapter 6. Thailand: from Brown to Green? ............................ 109
Industry overview ............................................................................... 110
Dead fish and molasses ...................................................................... 119
Ripple effects....................................................................................... 126
Discussion ........................................................................................... 134
Chapter 7. Finland & Sweden: Vikings and Tigers .................... 138
Cleaner tigers ..................................................................................... 138
Viking technology ............................................................................... 143
vi
Winds of trade..................................................................................... 154
Discussion ........................................................................................... 159
Chapter 8. Conclusion .............................................................. 163
What happened? ................................................................................. 163
Country-level dynamics...................................................................... 164
Mill-level dynamics ............................................................................ 176
Appendices
Appendix A. Acronyms and Abbreviations .................................................186
Appendix B. Data Sources ...........................................................................191
Appendix C. Resource Requirements for a World-Class, Bleached Kraft
Pulp Mill, c. 1991 .....................................................................199
Appendix D. Pulp Mill Effluent Standards, c. 1994 ...................................200
Appendix E. PT Indah Kiat Pulp and Paper, "Kesepakatan," 1992 ..........201
Appendix F. Indonesia Pulp Mill Projects, c. 1994 .....................................204
Appendix G. Jaakko Pöyry Southeast Asia Projects, 1971-92 ...................205
Bibliography .............................................................................. 214
vii
Illustrations
Figures
Figure 1
Australia, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia: per capita
paper and paperboard consumption, 1965-92 ..........................13
Figure 2
Influence of timing, expansion, and strength of
environmentalism on adoption of environmental
technologies in Asia Pacific pulp and paper industries ...........14
Figure 3
Wood pulp production growth, 1981-91 ....................................36
Figure 4
Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia: production
of virgin pulp, 1965-94...............................................................36
Figure 5
Australia: pulp production, effective consumption of pulp
and woodchip exports, 1980-91 .................................................53
Figure 6
Australia: source and relative composition of raw
material inputs in pulp and paper products, 1980-91 .............53
Figure 7
Australia: consumption of paper and paperboard,
by product type 1980-91 ............................................................54
Figure 8
Australia: company share of virgin pulp production, 1992.....54
Figure 9
Amcor: corporate structure, late 1980s/early 1990s ...............62
Figure 10
Kimberly-Clark Australia: bathroom tissue wrapper,
back panel, c. May 1994 ............................................................67
Figure 11
Indonesia: pulp and paper mill projects ..................................80
Figure 12
Indonesia: pulp and paper manufacturing sites .....................83
Figure 13
Indonesia: growth in pulp production, 1985-???? ....................84
Figure 14
Indonesia: pulp manufacturers ................................................85
Figure 15
Indonesia: paper and paperboard consumption,
by type of paper, 1982-92 ..........................................................86
Figure 16
Sinar Mas Group: corporate structure .....................................91
Figure 17
Thailand: paper and paperboard consumption and pulp
production, 1965-92 .................................................................102
viii
Figure 18
Thailand: consumption and paper and paperboard,
by type of product, 1987-97 (projected) ...................................102
Figure 19
Thailand: production and effective consumption of pulp,
1987-97 (projected) ..................................................................102
Figure 20
Siam Pulp and Paper group: organization, product
structure, and annual production, in metric tons ..................104
Figure 21
Rauma Repola/Sunds Defibrator: organizational
structure ...................................................................................133
Figure 22
Kværner: business areas ........................................................135
Figure 23
Jaakko Pöyry: Southeast Asian projects, by year,
1971-92 .....................................................................................136
Figure 24
Jaakko Pöyry: Southeast Asian projects, by country,
1971-92 .....................................................................................136
Figure 25
Jaakko Pöyry: organizational structure, c. 1993...................136
Figure 26
Ahlstrom: organizational structure .......................................138
Figure 27
Finland: non-OECD exports, 1984-93....................................140
Figure 28
Finland and Sweden: unemployment rates, 1981-95............141
Figure 29
Australia, Indonesia, and Thailand: general pattern of
establishment of a new 'environment-technology' regime
in the pulp and paper industries, c. 1987-96 ..........................159
Figure 30
Global flow of innovation in environmental pulping and
bleaching technologies, c. 1985-96 ..........................................165
Tables
Table 1.
Levels and units of analysis in this study ................................38
Table 2.
Pulp mills studied, by country, type of process, and data
sources ........................................................................................41
Table 3
Data sources on pulp mill environmental regulation, by
country and state/province ........................................................43
Table 4
Data sources on transnational technology and consulting
engineering firms.......................................................................44
ix
Table 5
Interviews conducted, by sector and country ...........................45
Table 6
Research phases, methods, locations, and dates ......................50
Table 7
Australia: selected federal grants to voluntary
conservation organizations, 1990-91 .......................................76
Table 8
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand: technology employed
in bleached chemical pulp production, 1981-97 ....................129
Table 9
Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand: correlates
of environmental improvements at bleached pulp mills,
c. 1979-96 .................................................................................159