Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH) believes that its role as a world-leading wellness group includes a firm commitment to ensure sustainable, eco-friendly practices across all aspects of its business. Led by its founding principle, ‘doing the right thing always,’ the group has taken proactive steps and implemented measures to reduce the environmental footprint resulting from its operations and manufacturing of hygienic paper products. The group continues to invest in new and innovative solutions and technology and work towards global sustainability goals.

FHH CEO, James Michael Lafferty, said, “We are especially proud to be the industry leader in minimizing water usage since we operate in a region where water scarcity is a fact of life. Hygienic paper manufacturing demands a great deal of natural resources and energy, it is only right that we do our utmost to eliminate waste and make our processes more efficient. It takes an average of 6 m3 of water to produce one industrial paper roll that will ultimately become Fine facial tissues, paper towels, or toilet paper. By establishing on-site water treatment facilities, we are working on re-using as much as possible of the wastewater the process produces, and thanks to its advanced filtration and sanitation systems we are able to maintain the exacting standards of quality and hygiene associated with the Fine brand.”

Fine’s innovative on-site wastewater recycling initiative

FHH’s first-of-its-kind process water treatment plant was implemented at the Arenbeh manufacturing site in Jordan in 2018. It utilizes intelligent design and cutting-edge filtration and sanitation technology to effectively and efficiently restore wastewater produced by two of the site’s paper machines into high-quality, pure water that is then reused in operations.

The water treatment plant was created as a build-operate-transfer (BOT) project in collaboration with Engicon, a global engineering consulting firm based in Jordan.

The result: dramatically reduced freshwater consumption and considerable operational savings

At full capacity, the plant is capable of treating 900 m3 of wastewater per day. After treatment, more than 80% of the wastewater is recycled back to the paper machines, equaling a 25% annual reduction in freshwater consumption. Any water which cannot be reused, FHH utilizes to irrigate the brine-tolerant landscaping surrounding the plant.

Following the success of the Jordanian water treatment plant, FHH began a process of implementing similar projects at its operations in Egypt and the UAE.

At the Al Nakheel site in the UAE, water consumption has successfully been reduced by more than 20%, while in Egypt water consumption has been reduced by 15%.

FHH’s commitment to a better, brighter, more sustainable future

While recognizing the ecological responsibility that befalls large-scale manufacturers, FHH believes that environmental stewardship is an essential part of business growth. In terms of operation efficiency, doing the right thing means that the company is always aiming to minimize its pulp, energy and water consumption, and reduce waste across all levels of operations.

In line with global sustainability principles, FHH is additionally pursuing a policy of responsible sourcing of raw materials, such as virgin pulp from sustainably managed forests, addressing its energy sourcing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and applying a responsible waste management policy, which has achieved zero landfill waste across all of its industrial facilities.