Sustainability
Lawter » Sustainability » Our work with bio-based raw materials
Our work with bio-based raw materials
Lawter has always integrated sustainability into its business since our core technology is based on pine chemicals. It’s simply in our DNA. Pine chemicals are a renewable resource that do not compete with food crops and can be sourced globally from sustainably managed forests and as a by-product of the paper industry.
Lawter creates and commercializes products developed with natural chemicals from pine trees. We serve a wide range of markets and applications, including printing inks, paints, adhesives, road markings, and synthetic rubber. The viability of the pine chemical industry is strongly related to sustainability. The raw material extracted from pine trees contains components such as fatty acids, rosin, pitch, heads, and turpentine.
This bio-based resource can be obtained in three ways:
- By collecting the oleoresin from living trees and further refining it by distillation.
- By solvent extraction of aged pine stumps.
- By distilling a by-product of the Kraft pulping process known as crude tall oil.
A Renewable Source
Pine chemicals such as crude gum and gum rosin are collected from living trees. Pine trees are tapped during their useful life and then cut for lumber or chips for pulping. Afterward, the rest of the tree is used for fuel, and the forest is replanted to keep the cycle going. Unlike limited fossil feedstocks, reforestation makes the pine tree a truly renewable resource with a lifecycle of 20 to 30 years.
Another important source of pine chemicals comes from the papermaking process. Tall oil rosin, fatty acids, and other building blocks are recovered as by-products of crude tall oil and crude sulfate turpentine.
These pine chemicals are further refined, and residual products are used as fuel. This sustainable strategy is known as the “cascade use” of biomass resources. It ensures resource efficiency by prolonging the value chain and maximizing both economic and social value. Additionally, the forests associated with the wood pulping process are sustainably managed, and new pine trees are planted regularly, preventing deforestation.