Page 18 - Georgia Forestry - Issue 3 - Summer 2022

HARVEST
Using Every Part of the Tree
Many tenets of the circular economy are already applied in the forest sector. Wood products used for construction purposes contribute to a lower carbon footprint of buildings. Wood, cellulose and its derivatives (such as lignin) are a viable substitute for non-renewable materials (like plastic). By-products from the manufacturing process — like bark, sawdust and shavings — are used to produce energy for the mill and
the surrounding community. Finally, paper products are recyclable, and Georgia ranks third in the U.S. for paper-based recycling.
Each year, DS Smith sustainably harvests 60-70,000 tons of timber from its 18,000 acres of commercial timberland in southeast Georgia. The wood is used in combination with recycled paper to create sustainable material that is used to package and ship common household products all over the world.
REPLANT
Starting Anew With a Seedling
So familiar to the forestry industry yet invisible to most Georgians is
the reforestation process. Georgia leads the nation in the number of seedlings grown in the state for reforestation at more than 331 million seedlings annually. Pictured here,
on DS Smith’s Sansavilla tract just outside of Brunswick, the company recently planted 125 acres of loblolly pine seedlings from its reforestation partner, ArborGen — part of 500,000 pine seedlings on 700 acres.
“The ArborGen seedlings, to reforest tracts that have been harvested, arrived in Greencoat boxes produced in our Columbia, SC, packaging facility,