ND Paper will recycle paper to produce pulp at Old Town mill, adding 20 jobs
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ND Paper's Old Town pulp mill is adding a production line that will recycle corrugated boxes and other waste paper. ND expects to hire 20 workers for the expanded operations.
ND Paper will expand pulp manufacturing in Old Town — and make its mill there more earth-friendly — with the addition of a production line that recycles paper.
The line will employ 20 new workers.
The company on Thursday said the operation is now starting up and will soon will produce 200 metric tons of unbleached pulp per day from regionally sourced scrap paper, such as corrugated cardboard boxes.
Using the waste as a feedstock “is anticipated to improve local recycling and ultimately reduce disposal alternatives like landfilling,” the company said in a news release.
“In addition, while traditional pulping operations typically require considerable use of water, this new line is novel as it requires very little consumption.”
The line utilizes a patent-pending, proprietary technology, and should be at full capacity by the third quarter of this year, spokesman Brennan Burks told Mainebiz. The company expects the new operation to create roughly 20 new jobs in Maine and also support additional ones through the supply chain.
ND Paper LLC is the U.S. subsidiary of giant Chinese manufacturer Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd., which has annual sales of $10 billion. The Illinois-based unit currently employs 155 people at the Old Town mill and also operates a mill in Rumford. ND Paper has two other U.S. manufacturing sites, in Wisconsin and West Virginia.
“We are thrilled to start our new recycled pulping operation at the Old Town mill,” Bruce Hogan, vice president and general manager of ND’s Old Town Division, said in the release. “This multimillion-dollar investment from ND Paper represents another vote of confidence in the state of Maine’s forest products sector, the Old Town Division, and our vision to build a sustainable company for the next 100 years.”
Hogan joined ND Paper earlier this month after working for companies including International Paper, Mohawk Fine Papers, Essity and Appvion.
ND Paper purchased the mill and 100 acres in Old Town for an undisclosed price in the fall of 2018. The plant, which had been shuttered since 2015, reopened in August 2019. It began operations in 1860 as a sawmill and moved into pulp production in 1882 as Penobscot Chemical Fiber Co.
Prior to closing, the Old Town mill manufactured 155,000 metric tons of bleached hardwood kraft pulp annually. At the time of the purchase, ND Paper said it expected the facility to ultimately produce 275,000 tons of unbleached pulp per year.
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