NewPage to build new plant addition in Escanaba

The NewPage paper mill in Escanaba will be home to a new plant soon, which brings a whole array of benefits including lower costs, more jobs, more locally-sourced materials, and a healthier environment to the mill.

NewPage signed an agreement with Omya, a producer of minerals and pigments, to build a precipitated calcium carbonate plant at the Escanaba mill site.

PCC, as it’s called, is an essential to the papermaking process, used for texture, brightness and whiteness, and currently is manufactured elsewhere and transported to the plant. The lime needed for making PCC also will become a locally-sourced product as a result.

NewPage says the new on-site PCC plant has yet another benefit; it will use carbon dioxide generated at the paper mill in the process of making PCC, which reduces the environmental impact and carbon waste of the paper mill.

On top of all that good news, the plant will create seven local jobs.

“By locating the plant here at the Escanaba mill, it’s not only mutually beneficial for Omya and NewPage, the improved economics and job creation help support the local economy,” says mill manager Roger Rouleau.

NewPage produces printing and specialty papers for commercial printing from mills all over the Northern and Midwestern U.S. Omya is a Switzerland-based company that produces and distributes minerals worldwide.

Writer: Sam Eggleston
Source: NewPage