The investments to GP's Broadway mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, include building a new paper machine and adding converting equipment and infrastructure.

Georgia-Pacific, a packaging producer headquartered in Atlanta, has announced a $500 million expansion to its Broadway mill in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and officially broke ground on the project July 20.

The company says the investments will significantly enhance the company's retail consumer tissue and towel business, and include building a new paper machine using through-air-dried (TAD) technology and adding associated converting equipment and infrastructure.

The project first was announced in December 2021 and is expected to be complete in 2024.

On its website, Georgia-Pacific refers to its Broadway mill as “one of the largest wastepaper recycling operations in the world.” Adds the firm, “It uses more than 430,000 tons of recovered wastepaper each year to produce paper products found in airports, hotels, restaurants, hospitals and schools.”

“This truly is an investment in our customers and consumers who value the quality of our products,” Georgia-Pacific President and CEO Christian Fischer says. “We appreciate the local community, Brown County, state officials and all of our employees' hard work and efforts to continue making our Green Bay Broadway mill more competitive for the long-term.”

Currently, the Broadway mill operates seven paper machines and several converting operations to make bath tissue, paper towels, napkins and facial tissue for retail and away-from-home use. The facility consumes more than 430,000 tons of recovered paper each year.

Georgia-Pacific says the capital investment at its Green Bay facilities has totaled more than $700 million since 2006. The Broadway mill marked its 100th anniversary in 2019.

Tim Flanagan has been a member of SWANA since 2005.

The Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA), Silver Spring, Maryland, has selected Timothy S. Flanagan as the new president of the SWANA board of directors. As of July, Flanagan has been at the helm of SWANA’s 21-member board after Brenda A. Haney transitioned into the role of past president.  

“Tim Flanagan brings a strong variety of both public and private sector solid waste experience to the board, and he will be an excellent president,” says David Biderman, SWANA executive director and CEO. “He is very passionate about solid waste, recycling, and SWANA and I look forward to working closely with him.”  

President Flanagan has been a member of SWANA and the SWANA Gold Rush Chapter since 2005. He is a SWANA-certified manager of Landfill Operations and served as director of SWANA’s Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) Technical Division, which he also represented on the International Board. In 2016, he was elected to SWANA’s executive board and the SMM Technical Division recognized him with its Distinguished Individual Achievement Award. Before joining SCS in February 2022, Flanagan served as general manager of Monterey Regional Waste Management District from 2015 through 2021, after 10 years as assistant general manager. He is currently serving as project director for SCS Engineers. 

"It is truly an honor to be voted the president of SWANA,” Flanagan says. "I stand on the shoulders of many current and former SCS managers and directors, including past President Michelle Leonard, who helped lead SWANA to be the preeminent solid waste and recycling association in the world.” 

This transition was delayed in FY 2022 in response to the pandemic. Additionally, Art Mercer has taken on the role of vice president, Tammy L. Hayes has become treasurer and Elizabeth Roe was elected to the board as secretary.  

SWANA’s board of directors is responsible for setting strategic direction and overseeing the association’s operations and policy positions. The board receives input from an advisory board made up of delegates from all SWANA chapters, technical divisions, private sector groups and from Young Professional members. 

Heartland hopes to help Amlon grow through a combination of organic growth and add-on acquisitions.

Heartwood Partners LLC, headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut, has announced a growth investment in The Amlon Group that was finalized in December 2021 in partnership with the founders and management who will continue to lead the company.

"Heartwood's growth investment in The Amlon Group significantly enhances our future prospects,” Amlon Group CEO Lee Lasher says. “We are benefiting from Heartwood's Value Creation Specialist team and strong track record in growing niche-leading businesses as we seek to further build upon our leadership position and 30-plus years of experience in processing and recycling of hazardous materials."

The Amlon Group’s environmental solutions protect finite resources by remediating waste and recycling valuable commodities. With increasing landfill-related liability and constraints, as well as growing federal and state regulations, companies today must look for sustainable alternatives when managing their waste, the company says. The Amlon Group is comprised of two closely integrated operating segments that play to this macro trend: Amlon Resources Group LLC ("ARG") and Alpha Omega Recycling Inc. (AORI). ARG acts primarily as a waste management services and logistics company in metal recycling and reclamation, whereas AORI is ARG's in-house waste processor.

Acquired by ARG in 2017 to vertically integrate processing capabilities, AORI is a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Part B permitted facility, recycling metal-bearing industrial manufacturing byproducts through thermal and other technical processing and recycling capabilities. 

"We are thrilled to complete this partnership with the experienced environmental services investors at Heartwood Partners and remain excited about the future,” Amlon Group President Mark Wayne says. “More great opportunities are on the horizon for The Amlon Group." Heartwood Partners is focused on investing in partnership with family and management-owners. Its approach includes using robust capital structures for companies while providing strategic, operational and human capital development while providing marketing and e-commerce expertise to support long-term growth. This supports organic and acquisition-driven growth into new products and services.

“The Amlon Group has developed an exceptionally strong foundation over its 30-plus year history through deep environmental industry expertise, high-quality service and strong waste processing capabilities. We proactively sought out The Amlon Group. They are a perfect fit with our focus and experience investing in the environmental services and recycling sectors, as well as our approach toward growth through investment in people, processes and add-on acquisitions,” Heartwood Partners Managing Director Demetrios Dounis says. “We intend to drive future growth by leveraging the company's market leadership and scalable infrastructure. We also plan to expand into new markets organically and through strategic add-on acquisitions." Heartwood Partners Private Equity Income Fund III LP is a $600 million committed fund. Alarian Associates Inc. served as the financial advisor to Heartwood Partners.

The platform was confirmed as an official Circular Plastics Alliance data collector earlier this year.

The Brussels-based European Plastics Converters (EuPC) group has extended the scope of its Monitoring Recyclates for Europe (MORE) platform to include polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, recycled polymers. The decision was made by the CPA Monitoring Secretariat and CPA Monitoring Working Group at the end of June.

“With MORE, our industry has the opportunity to continue its efforts towards a circular plastics economy, and this scope expansion will allow us to include even more companies in our MORE family,” says EuPC Managing Director Alexandre Dangis.

Premiums for high grades continue to climb as supply remains hard to come by.

Recovered paper industry sources nationwide are reporting less and less available supply, particularly among high grades, as generation of those grades has not yet recovered from the mass exodus at offices and commercial buildings since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.

According to pricing figures from Fastmarkets RISI’s July 7 Pulp & Paper Week “Price Watch,” premiums for all deinking grades increased by $10 per ton across the board, with sorted office paper (SOP) as high as $240 to $250 per ton in most regions in the U.S.

“Right now, you’re in an environment when commodities in general, any commodity in the world, is pretty much higher [because of the] supply chain [and] all the different reasons for what’s going on in the world,” says Brent Kirstein, president of 4G Recycling in Deerfield Beach, Florida.

“There’s definitely a huge spike in demand, and the mills are just not getting enough supply,” Kirstein adds. “SOP mills are having to buy anything they can get their hands on—they’re having to pull from further away, and that’s just on the U.S. side. On the international side, it’s even crazier.”

SOP export premiums also increased, with the Los Angeles and the San Francisco/Oakland regions seeing $20 per ton hikes, according to RISI. Kari Talvola of Fibre Trade Inc., Burlingame, California, says, “Demand is definitely there. I don’t see that slowing at the moment; however, given the state of the economy, that remains to be seen. But as of today, I can pretty much sell everything that I have—export or domestic.”

Kirstein says he’s seen instances of large tissue mills pulling supply from thousands of miles way—even with the increased fuel and freight costs—when, traditionally, those mills would only pull their supply from a few hundred miles away.

He also notes traditional mill buying practices are not helping the situation, adding, “Where I think from a mill standpoint they do things wrong is they try to only buy what they need instead of maintaining a healthy inventory. And because of their buying practices and how they want to manage their inventory, they have these spikes.”

Several sources report seeing paper orders made up to four to six months in advance rather than what typically has been two or four weeks’ notice, and with less paper available and generation down, Kirstein says, “Mills are getting desperate and it’s raising the market.” (Read more on the state of the high grades market from Kirstein and Talvola in the Paper Commodity Focus starting on Page 42).

The shifting supply and demand dynamics haven’t deterred new capacity and merger and acquisition activity. In a move announced July 6, Paper Excellence, through its wholly owned subsidiary Domtar, acquired Resolute Forest in a deal worth $2.7 billion that will add to the Paper Excellence Group’s annual paper and pulp production of 2.8 million metric tons.

The acquisition adds 1.1 million metric tons of pulp capacity, 116,000 metric tons of tissue capacity, seven paper mills totaling 1.5 million metric tons of capacity and 22 wood products facilities to the Paper Excellence portfolio.