It's cardboard season; ever wonder where it all comes from?

A machine the size of a football field makes paper that becomes boxes. (Photo by Christopher Payne, The New York Times)

The people of Windsor, Wisconsin, pop. 8,000, rejoiced when the village's newsletter announced it would have a separate bin for cardboard recycling, all the more important when more Christmas gifts are bought online and shipped. But where does all that cardboard come from?

The corrugated-paper industry runs trees through a marathon of steps before a nifty box emerges, writes Matthew Shaer of The New York Times: "Before it was the cardboard on your doorstep, it was coarse brown paper, and before it was paper, it was a river of hot pulp, and before it was a river, it was a tree. Probably a Pinus taeda, or loblolly pine, a slender conifer native to the Southeastern United States." 

Shaer met up with Alex Singleton, a manager for International Paper, which produces a third of U.S. boxes. His mission "is to source enough loblollies to help keep IP’s production lines humming." He told Shaer, “You’re sort of always in a race. You learn to get creative.” Singleton manages a group of foresters who "spend much of their time zipping around the Southeast by pickup, using a proprietary smartphone app to monitor tracts of harvestable woodland," Shaer writes.

In the woodyard, the creation begins: "A crane was removing timber from a log truck and feeding it into the bladed mouth of a cylindrical machine known as a debarking drum. . . . It churned and chewed and spit the denuded trees from its rear end," Shaer writes. "Another masticating machine, this one a steel chipper. In went the debarked trees, out came a spray of loblolly pine. . . . chips from the woodyard were entering what’s known as the kraft process (the German word for 'strength')."

Shaer describes the 'paper machine,' which "stretched across almost the entire mill floor and trembled like a space shuttle just before liftoff. . . . Pulp sluiced in and cascaded onto the 'former,' where it was flattened into a paper-like consistency." There are more steps, and the end product is corrugated: "If you’ve stopped to look at an individual panel of corrugate and noticed its resemblance to a deli sandwich. There’s a top and a bottom, and between them is a bunch of ridged or diagonally reinforced filler called 'fluting.' That fluting is what gives a cardboard box its protective quality; without its flutes, corrugate wouldn’t be corrugate at all — it would just be containerboard."

The corrugated cardboard industry is booming, Shaer reports: "In 2021, Amazon shipped $470 billion of goods globally, in an estimated 7.7 billion packages." Happy unpacking!

After the company that produced iconic reporter's notebooks closed, Iowa journalist launched his own line

Nic Garcia's new reporter's notebook closely
echoes the iconic Stationers Inc. notebooks.
(Photo from First Draft Notebooks)

Nic Garcia, 36, is the politics editor of the Des Moines Register, but he recently picked up a new side gig: producing and selling reporter's notebooks, Bill Lohmann reports for the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

It came about after Garcia learned last year that Stationers Inc., a Richmond office-supply store that produced iconic reporter's notebooks, was closing following owner Tom Edwards' death. "Stationers notebooks weren’t the only brand of notebooks reporters used, but they became popular, in part, because of their spirals at the top, the good quality paper and their sturdy covers — better for writing on as you stand and talk to someone and scrawl notes with one hand while holding the notebook with the other," Lohmann writes.

Garcia "soon began working on the idea of starting his own notebook business early last year and in October launched First Draft Notebooks, which bear a resemblance to the Stationers notebooks. Full disclosure: The Times-Dispatch placed an order in January."

Lohmann takes a deep dive into the role that reporters' notebooks in general, and Stationers notebooks in particular, have played in history, and reminisces about their practical and nostalgic pull.

It's a sentiment Garcia shares. He first noticed the distinctive mustard-yellow notebooks when watching "All the President's Men" as an aspiring journalist in the sixth grade. "He started calling around to different newspapers — remember: he was in the sixth grade, which, I guess, proves he really was a budding reporter — and asked about the kind of notebooks they used," Lohmann reports. "All roads led to Stationers, and his grandmother mail-ordered his first two dozen Stationers notebooks, which he found to be as high-quality as they appeared on the big screen." He's been using them ever since.

The notebook is still a quintessential part of journalism, Garcia told Lohmann: "It’s a tool of our craft ... Any reporter knows having your notebook in hand is an invitation to talk to anybody about anything."

Maine paper mill seeks local donations of cardboard, an example of supply-chain woes

Here's how dire supply-chain shortages are getting for some manufacturers: A paper mill in Old Town, Maine, says raw materials are so expensive that it's asking locals to donate used cardboard and other paper products, Robbie Feinberg reports for Maine Public Radio.

ND Paper makes mostly pulp and tissue paper, and has been in business for more than 150 years. But demand for old corrugated cardboard has skyrocketed because more people are shopping online. "You think about how many Amazon delivery boxes you get on a daily or weekly basis, you think about the conversion — transformation away from, you know, traditional plastic packaging at your local grocery store to paper bags," mill spokesman Brennan Burks told Feinberg.

So the mill set up a bin nearby and is asking residents from four nearby towns to donate their used cardboard. It's a win/win situation, the mill says. "Besides the financial advantage for the company, the mill is also touting the environmental benefits, too. Less than 40 percent of Maine's municipal waste was recycled in 2019. The mill hopes that by collecting pizza and cereal boxes, fewer will end up in the dump," Feinberg reports.

Online retail sales in the U.S. are expected to have hit about $920 billion in 2021, up from $792 billion in 2020, and are predicted to outstrip other retail sales growth in the next few years, Shelley Kohan reports for Forbes. That's a lot of boxes.

Maine's once thriving paper mill industry struggling to stay afloat

Maine's once thriving paper mill industry "continued its downturn in 2015 in the face of closures, digitization, foreign competition and consolidation," Patrick Whittle reports for The Associated Press. "Remaining players in the industry, which has declined from 426 mills nationally in 2005 to 326 today, say adaptation to changing consumer trends is needed for survival."

Maine has less than half as many mills that it had in 1980, and the number of employees has dropped from 13,000 in the early 2000s to about 6,150 today, Whittle writes. "The paper industry is used to economic downturn, but 2015 was especially cruel to Maine papermaking, which was once a vital point of entry to middle-class life in the largely rural state. The bankrupt Lincoln Paper and Tissue mill was purchased after a November auction. Wisconsin-based Expera Specialty Solutions has also announced plans to shutter its Old Town facility. The closures affect Vermont, too, because many of the state's loggers had been selling their products in Maine."

While government regulations "and competition from places like China, Brazil, Germany and Finland, along with competition from iPhones and Androids," are blamed for the downturn, insiders say there "is still room in the marketplace for U.S.-made paper products like to-go coffee cups and the holiday packages used by online shippers," Whittle writes.

And despite the downturn, "American paper is still a huge business—the paper association said the industry's economic output was more than $217 billion in 2014, and it generates more than $50 billion in payroll annually," Whittle writes. "Maine ranked eighth in the nation in 2014 for paper and paperboard capacity." (Read more)

Alabama paper plant, town's leading employer with 1,100 workers, closing due to lower demand

"International Paper, the largest employer in Lawrence County, will close its Courtland (Ala.) plant by early next year, leaving 1,100 workers jobless," Lucy Berry reports for the Alabama Media Group. "The decision to close International Paper, a paper mill built in 1971 with an annual production capacity of 950,000 tons, was finalized Tuesday afternoon during a board of directors meeting. The mill will be shut down in stages, with full closure expected by the end of the first quarter of 2014." (Alabama Media Group photo by Mary Sellers: International Paper Company)

A press release from the paper mill states that the demand "for uncoated freesheet in North America has been in decline since 1999 and has recently accelerated as consumers continue to switch to electronic alternatives such as online publications and electronic billing and filing." Printing and Communications Papers Senior Vice-President Tim Nicholls said in a statement: "We explored numerous business and re-purposing options for the Courtland Mill, but concluded that permanently closing the mill best positions the business for the future." (Read more)

Study says more shale drilling could benefit economy; insurance companies fear risks

"Increased oil and gas production ranks at the top of the list of things analysts say the country can do to boost the sluggish post-recession recovery," according to a report by McKinsey Global Institute entitled "Game Changers: Five Opportunities for U.S. Growth and Renewal," Nathanial Gronewold reports for Environment and Energy News. The report suggests "that hundreds of billions of dollars could be added to the economy from shale oil and gas by 2020, and that the oil and gas industry could contribute substantially to the gross domestic product over the next seven years." (Marcellus Shale Project Documentary photo by Scott Goldsmith: Drilling site in Washington County in Pennsylvania)

The report says that "if allowed to proceed unimpeded and encouraged, oil and gas drilling and production growth could add $380 billion to $690 billion to the overall economy," Gronewold reports.
"A high volume of hydrocarbon production and other economic activities associated with it could contribute as much as 3.7 percent to national GDP by 2020."

"The report argues that the direct benefit to the oil and gas industry from shale exploitation could range from $115 billion to $225 billion by 2020, with the rest of the economic boost coming from an expected surge in manufacturing stemming from huge new reserves," Gronewold reports. "It lists petrochemicals, steel, paper and glass as industries most likely to experience a boost from expanded shale energy production. McKinsey estimates that as much as $1.4 trillion in new investments may be needed to realize shale's full potential -- investment that will come almost entirely from private sources, thus not burdening local or national public sector budgets." (Read more)

But safety concerns still linger, and some major insurance companies, concerned about potential hazards, "remain unwilling to take on fracking and well drilling risks in shale plays until operating, regulatory and legal liability issues become clearer," Peter Behr reports for E&E News. "Insurance providers want a clearer picture of the potential hazards of deep well hydraulic fracturing in U.S. shale plays as they weigh the costs of covering the risks -- or consider whether to provide insurance at all, industry officials and experts say."

Attorney Earl Hagström told Behr, "Environmental risk has been around for a long time. Insurance companies know how to deal with it. But there are a lot of unknowns (in shale gas operations), and a lot of conflicting information. If something goes wrong, how big a problem is it? It is an unresolved issue that will have to play out over the next few years, maybe longer. The insurers and the re-insurers are reticent to participate if they can't understand the risk. If they can't understand the risk, they can't price it."

Seth Chandler, a University of Houston law professor, told Behr "some operators or subcontractors may be going without drilling and fracking coverage. Standard liability insurance policies don't cover the fracking issues. If you frack and you don't have liability insurance that covers you, you're betting that nothing bad is going to happen. And if you believe the frackers, nothing does happen." (Read more)

Big Tenn. paper mill idles its last newsprint machine

Resolute Forest Products is shutting down its last newsprint machine in Calhoun, Tenn., after decades of shedding forest lands and mill jobs in response to the shrinking size and circulation of the newspapers that buy newsprint, reports Dave Flessner for the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

Flessner writes that "indefinite idling" of the newsprint machines will cost another 150 mill jobs, cutting the remaining staff at the Calhoun plant below 500 by the end of the month. The Calhoun mill produced 215,000 metric tons per year and supplied newsprint for dozens of newspapers in the Southeast, including the Times Free Press. A plant in Augusta, Ga., will pick up its newsprint customers.

The plant was once owned by the old Bowater Corp. David Davis of the Cleveland Daily Banner writes that in 1954 the mill had 750 employees who produced 180,000 tons of newsprint and market pulp annually. In 2004, it had 900 employees who produced 990,000 tons. The company paid $89 million annually in wages and salaries.

In 2010 151 newspapers closed and 152 in 2011, reports Katrina M. Mendolera of inVocus, a media news center. But the main reason for declining newsprint sales is the shrinking size of newspapers, both in number of pages and page dimensions. 

Top coated-paper company files for bankruptcy, says rural paper mills to stay open for now

NewPage Holdings Corp., North America's largest manufacturer of coated paper, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a move that could affect employment in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland and Kentucky, home of its southernmosst plant, on the Mississippi River near Wickliffe.

According to bankruptcy filings, the Ohio-based company currently owes $4.2 billion in debt against $3.4 billion in assets, and its annual losses have deepened from $22 million in 2007 to $674 million last year, Rick Romell, of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. (Journal Sentinel map)

The company has entered into talks with J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. to obtain a $600 million loan to remain open during their Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, reports Mike Spector of The Wall Street Journal.

The jobs of those currently working at paper mills owned by NewPage are at stake, and with them, the fate of local economies where these mills operate. Romell writes Wisconsin has a lot to lose because paper making is a key industry in the state. However, in a statement the company released, NewPage vows to keep open their U.S. operations through the company's bankruptcy restructuring process.

Soft paper obsession is hard on the environment

Americans are obsessed with soft toilet paper, so much that brands such as Cottonelle Ultra, Quilted Northern Ultra and Charmin Ultra increased their sales by 40 percent in 2008. Here's the rub, so to speak: Soft paper is made from standing trees, not recycled material, drawing ire of environmental groups.

"The country’s soft-tissue habit — call it the Charmin effect — has not escaped the notice of environmentalists, who are increasingly making toilet tissue manufacturers the targets of campaigns," reports Leslie Kaufman of The New York Times. (Times photo)

While most of the trees used in making soft paper come from farms, some are harvested from old-growth forests. Those trees are vital for absorption of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, environmental groups note. They also point out that creating paper from recycled material uses less water, and creates less waste tonnage than making paper from trees. (Read more)

Using wood for energy stirs timber-industry fears

Biomass facilities to produce renewable energy are facing challenges from some timber interests. In Georgia, three planned facilities have met with opposition because the woody material used to create energy is also used by timber industries. There is also concern from paper producers that the new plants could drive up prices of wood products.

“They’re going to see these guys as competition — and they may very well be,” Alva Hopkins, a spokesman for the Georgia Forestry Association, told Kate Galbraith of The New York Times. There is also fear that the new biomass facilities would require live trees for energy production. That fear appears to be well founded. Mike Price, the chief operating officer of the proposed biomass facility at Oglethorpe, Ga., said, "For a plant this size we will have to harvest some trees."

The switch to biomass from coal is taking place across the U.S., Galbraith writes: "Companies have in part been motivated by the looming possibility of stricter environmental controls for coal, as well as rising interest in renewable energy." Although coal-fired power plants will have to make adjustments to switch to biomass facilities, and the switch will diminish their output capabilities, many plants throughout the U.S. are beginning to making the switch. Still, many of the proposed facilities still have obstacles to overcome before they can be built. Their presence in the Southern U.S. appears to be growing in popularity in large part because traditional sources of renewable energy, namely wind and solar power, are less viable in the South. (Read more)

Newsprint price increases squeeze all newspapers

Rural and other community newspapers with strong local-news franchises have been insulated from Internet competition, but all newspapers are being hit by big increases in the cost of newsprint -- which, incidentally, tends to be produced in rural areas.

"The price of paper stock, a daily publisher's second-biggest expense after labor, has climbed 26 percent to a 12-year high of $700 a metric ton since October, pushed upwards by supplier consolidation rather than demand," Sarah Rabil reports for Bloomberg News. Abitibi- Consolidated Inc. and Bowater Inc. merged in October, creating AbitibiBowater Inc., the world's largest manufacturer of newsprint, with 45 percent of the North American market.

With daily papers' advertising revenue down, that means fewer pages to print, and less demand for paper. Record oil prices and a strong Canadian dollar have further squeezed the company, which is losing money and "has closed mills to reduce supply," Rabil reports. It has raised newsprint prices $20 a ton "every month this year, even as consumption of newsprint by daily newspapers fell 15 percent in the 12 months through March. The jump in prices is 'unprecedented' in a period of falling demand, said Ed Atorino at Benchmark Co. in New York, who has followed newspapers for 25 years." Newsprint producers can raise prices easily, Rabil writes, "because AbitibiBowater, White Birch Paper Co. and Kruger Inc. control 75 percent of the North American newsprint market, said CreditSights Inc. analyst Chris Ucko." (Read more)