Pulp and paper industry-based pollutants, and their adverse impacts

The paper mills produce a considerable amount of effluents and green gases due to the consumption of chemicals and energy. The produced waste poses serious health issues in human beings, particularly cancer, skin diseases, mutagenicity, and destruction of aquatic life and the food chain. This chapter focuses on effluents discharged from the pulp and paper industry and their health hazards on living beings. For environmental compliance, the strict implementation of regulatory models is needed. The hazardous effects of effluents have been evaluated several times, but their reduction is still a big issue. Some recent techniques, including cleaner production, anaerobic digestion, and microbial fuel cell, have been discussed to mitigate effluents from paper and pulp mills. This helps to understand the threat of effluents discharged from the paper industry and technologies to manage effluents for a sustainable environment.