Abstract
The purpose of this study is to characterize wastewater from the corrugated cardboard industry and to highlight the nature and sources of pollution. Wastewaters from the corrugator and printing processes as well as homogenization tank, which collects all effluents from industrial processes, were analysed using standard methods. The results indicate that these effluents had a significant pollution load. The wastewater from the homogenization tank had high concentration of COD (24243 ± 2374.6 mg∙L-1), BOD5 (413.33 ±17.14 mg∙L-1) and total solids (36.84 ± 10.62 g∙L-1). In addition, the biodegradability indices were less than 0.4, indicating that the effluents from the cardboard industry are not readily biodegradable. The printing process is the main source of liquid pollution in the cardboard industry facilities. The pollution load resulting from this process was much greater than that of the corrugator process wastewater. In accordance with current standards, these industrial effluents require treatment before discharge or re-use.