The Impact of Changing ONP Quality on a Newsprint Mill, 2005 Engineering, Pulping & Environmental Conference

One of the most significant changes in the recovered fiber industry in the last several years has been the shift from source-separated to commingled collection systems. The NORPAC newsprint mill in Longview, WA has used recovered fiber as a part of its raw material furnish for 14 years and now consumes over 250,000 tons annually. During this time, as more and more of the mill’s ONP suppliers have switched to commingled collection, the quality of the raw material has decreased substantially. In order to maintain the high newsprint quality standards required of the mill’s customers additional maintenance, reject disposal, and fiber costs of over $2,500,000 per year have been incurred. Increased equipment wear, due primarily to glass and other abrasive contamination, has increased maintenance costs over 300%. Pulper rejects, which are landfilled, and consist primarily of plastics, tin, glass and aluminum, have increased 800%. Other fiber related costs have increased by 740%. In the drive to reduce recycling collection costs the recovered fiber-consuming mill has been substantially and adversely impacted. There is a strong need for more balance in this system and one way to help achieve that is for improvements in technology, and its implementation.