|
Michael Corkery, The Great American Cardboard Comeback. New York Times, Mar 24, 2019 (in the SundayBusiness section).
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/22/business/cardboard.html
Quote:
"The village of Combined Locks, Wis, founded when the mill opened in 1889 [The mill was closed on Sept 21, 2017 but bought and reopened] * * * Then something unexpected happened: Amazon and China [the latter's only role was to ban import of American recyclables] * * * e-commerce has fueled demand for billions more square feet of cardboard.
"Since reopening, the mill in Combined Locks has switched most production from white paper to brown, installed equipment that can crush used cardboard to make new paper, and hired back about half of the 600 workers laid off during the shutdown.
The smooth brown paper they produce goes to cardboard-making vendors, who sell it in turn to Amazon and other [e-]retailers
"Brown paper sales slowed following the Christmas e-commerce rush, but industry analysts say the conditions are still ripe for long-term growth. That's where China comes in. Until early last year, much of the used cardboard consumed in the United States was being shipped to China [otherwise freight ships would have left US for China empty-handed], where it was recycled into new boxes [with which to ship goods to US]. Then, in January 2018, China stopped accepting most used cardboard imports. * * * for American paper companies that make new cardboard out of used boxes, China’s clampdown has been a boon. It has created a glut of cardboard scrap that is allowing American mills to obtain their most vital raw material at 70 percent less than it cost a year ago.
"Its workers [at the paper mill in Combined Locks] almost never say they are 'manufacturing' or 'producing' paper. They say they are 'making' paper, reflecting how the process is still thought of as a craft with a history that dates back to China in 105 AD.
"On some days, the odor of rotten eggs hangs over the village, a smell some residents attribute to another mill in a nearby town that uses sulfur to break wood down into pulp. 'I've heard,' said Ben Fairweather, head of operations at the Midwest Paper mill [the new name of the reopened mill], 'some people say that is the smell of money.'
"A few miles down the Fox River, in the city of Appleton [situated between Village of Combined Locks and Lake Winnebago; about 3 air miles west of Combined Locks], sits the Paper Discovery Center museum and the Paper International Hall of Fame. Located in a former mill, the modest shrine honors those whose 'accomplishments have truly revolutionized civilization.' Johannes Gutenberg, the inventor of the printing press, has a plaque on the wall. So does Wang Zhen, creator of the world's first mass-produced book in 14th-century China. Wisconsin has contributed its share of greats to the pantheon of paper. Morris Kuchenbecker, a retired package design engineer from the city of Neenah, patented a series of frozen-food cartons. Ernst Mahler, a chemist, invented the technology that makes tissues soft. The region's paper history dates to the years following the Civil War, when mills sprung up on along the Fox River to feed the industrializing nation's demand for reading and writing material and disposable towels. * * * Wisconsin remains one of the nation's largest paper producers, and much of it is still made in giant mills along the Fox. Today, huge conglomerates like Georgia Pacific [was founded by Owen Robertson Cheatham in 1927; based in Atlanta, Georgia], along with a handful of smaller companies, produce paper in the Fox River Valley area. But the industry has been contracting for decades, and it is not only because of the internet * * * n 2000, there were roughly 49,600 paper manufacturing jobs in Wisconsin, according to state figures. By 2017, that work force had declined to about 30,000 * * * Ms [Aorica] Hendriks [of Combined Locks mill], 44, worked her way up from the lowest rank to the role of 'coating tender,' applying the starch that make paper more rigid.
"Over the years, the mill’s products reflected the world’s evolving uses of paper: phone books, carbon-copy paper, paper for large printers. The company also had a string of owners. * * * In recent years, demand for glossy brochures [with white background; used in advertising], the mill's biggest moneymaker, kept falling [as advertising has migrated to internet]. * * * When the mill closed in 2017, most of its workers were able to find manufacturing or warehouse jobs. But these typically paid less than their unionized jobs at the paper mill. Ms Hendriks got a position at a plastics factory earning about $17 an hour, about $11 less than she made at the paper mill. * * * In September 2017, it [Combined Locks paper mill] was purchased out of receivership * * * The mill’s new owners, who called themselves Midwest Paper Group [naturally based in Village of Combined Locks]* * * Across the country, [due to surge in e-commerce] failed white paper mills were being converted to brown to feed the cardboard-box boom, and Midwest followed suit.
"The Chinese paper company Nine Dragons has acquired a handful of paper mills in Maine, Wisconsin and West Virginia and increased brown pulp and paper production. With China constricting imports of used cardboard, Nine Dragons bought the mills in the United States partly to get closer to the country's plentiful source of scrap paper. Another major player is the Kraft [that is Robert Kraft; he is charged with patronizing prostitutes] family, which owns a paper mill and a cardboard boxing plant, in addition to the New England Patriots. * * * A big step was persuading the union to agree to a new set of working conditions. The pay stayed largely the same — an average hourly wage of $25.50 — but the company would not contribute to 401(k) funds. Most significantly, the workers would be required to take on duties that previously had been performed by several employees [early in the report -- at paragraph 7 to be exact -- Midwest Paper Group 'hired back about half of the 600 workers laid off during the shutdown']. * * * Under the new business plan, the mill was not only a paper producer, but also a large recycling facility. The new owners installed an old corrugated container machine, known as an OCC [which stands for 'old corrugated containers' where container means cardboard], a towering vat of swirling warm water, where large bales of used cardboard boxes are dumped and then ground into the stock that makes the new brown paper. * * * The OCC turns the boxes into a thick, brown gruel. That mixture is then strained of plastic tape, staples and other debris before being pumped into the paper machine. * * * The plan to convert the mill to brown paper made business sense to the laid-off workers. They all shopped online and saw the opportunity in cardboard — or containerboard, as it's known in the industry. But many questioned whether the mill would be able to make brown paper after decades focused on white. The fibers are coarser, which puts more wear on the machines. The Combined Locks mill also lacked a 'shoe press' that traditional brown mills use to wring out water [of course the new management would buy shoe press]. 'Brown is a different bird,' said Jerry Meulemans, who is known around the mill as Grizz [from grizzly] because of his personality on the job. ('I can be a bear to work with.') Papermaking is almost entirely automated. But the product is still largely a byproduct of nature, and the process can easily be foiled by the slightest variable. The key is getting the wood fibers in the pulp to bind by using a combination of heat and pressure. With belts and rollers moving at about 25 miles per hour, the machine transforms the soupy pulp into a giant roll of rigid paper that resembles warm, earthy-smelling bread in seconds. If one element isn't calibrated correctly — too much moisture, a splotch of bacteria — the paper can tear and the roll has to be made again. * * * At 7 am on Dec 11, 2017, workers gathered for an all-hands meeting in a large, wood-paneled conference room. [Two days later, the mill restarted.]
|
发表于 4-1-2019 16:13:13
收藏
分享
支持
反对
楼主