“At capacity the mill will save the equivalent of some 20,000 trees and divert up to 3,500 cubic yards of waste from landfills every day. That’s enough trees to cover almost 15 football fields and enough waste to fill 90 garbage trucks every 24 hours,” said Company chairman Anthony Pratt.
The company already employs 280 workers at the adjacent box factory – the world’s largest – and the mill will add more than 100 new jobs.
Pratt said because of its location next to the existing box factory the mill’s freight cost would be almost zero. “So this will be a very low-cost mill,” he said. “We have over 100 facilities across the U.S. providing more than 4400 green collar jobs, but this Valparaiso facility will be very special to us.”
Pratt is America’s 5th largest corrugated packaging company and the world’s largest, privately-held 100% recycled paper and packaging company.