What: Cascades Auburn Fiber

Makes: Recycled pulp for paper products

Where: 586 Lewiston Junction Road

Contact: 753-5304; tours welcome

Recycling success
Cascades Auburn Fiber has managed to survive in a market littered with waste.

AUBURN – Craig Martin smiles when he looks over the vast warehouse at Cascades Auburn Fiber.

Pallets holding bales of recycled fiber stand 15 feet tall, like craggy, oversized boxes of tissues waiting to be shipped out. The rows of pallets allow just enough room for a fork lift to maneuver.

“By our standards, we’re virtually full,” said Martin, local sales manager for the Canadian-based company.

It’s a far cry from where the facility was seven years ago when it was VPS and owned by Stone & Webster. The $70 million de-inking plant was built in 1995 to capitalize on what was expected to be a burgeoning market for recycled paper pulp.

President Clinton had signed a mandate forcing all federal agencies to recycle their paper products in 1993. And in Maine, a series of forest referendum questions that could have hobbled paper companies’ supply of pulp dominated economic debates in the mid-’90s and pushed the industry to consider other sources of pulp.

But the ensuing market for waste paper didn’t materialize. The referendum questions failed, and no one enforced the federal mandate. Nor did private business jump on the recycling bandwagon.

The result: The 30-person workforce at VPS worked the equivalent of one week a month. In 1998, the plant was sold at a loss to Cascades.

“Nobody else in New England does this,” said Martin. Although there were eight to 10 recycled pulp plants throughout the country in the mid-’90s, the lagging market for products made with recycled paper spelled their doom.

“Most didn’t survive,” said Martin.

But Cascades was willing to go slowly, investing in equipment to improve the quality of recycled pulp and seeking out new customers. The workforce now numbers 40 and they’re working a regular full-time schedule. Cascades also built a loading dock for rail deliveries, expanding its transportation options. And the demise of its nearest competitor in New York this fall is adding to the company’s good fortune. Business is at an all-time high.

But Martin can’t afford to be complacent. The cost for recycled pulp runs about $100 more per ton than pulp that is harvested directly from a forest – what’s called virgin pulp. And a growing market in Asia threatens to divert waste paper from Cascades’ supply stream and make the purchase of raw material even more costly.

Pulp fact

Today, more than 300 tons of waste material a day come to the Lewiston Junction Road plant, where it is transformed into about 200 tons of recycled pulp. The bales of recycled pulp then head to customers throughout New England and Quebec.

“The goal of every de-inking operation is to use the cheapest raw material and get the necessary quality on the other end that satisfies the customer,” said Martin.

The raw material is gathered by packers who pick up paper waste from businesses in urban areas. Fifteen tractor-trailers arrive daily carrying a mix of newspaper, office paper and cardboard.

The waste paper is dumped into a huge chute – the first step in long, repetitive sequence that screens, cleans and pulverizes the paper into pulp. When it is finished, the recycled pulp is 99.9 percent pure – a process Martin likens to cleaning clams to remove grit.

The chute funnels the material into large rotating drums, where centrifugal force removes heavy materials that made their way into the office recycling bin, including staples, paper clips, the occasional CD and once even a bowling ball, according to Martin.

From there, the material is filtered through successively finer screens and soaked to remove inks and impurities. Special soap in the de-inking tanks creates bubbles that draw the ink from the paper and then float to the surface where they are skimmed off. Chemicals are added to brighten the paper fibers.

The steps are repeated until what was waste paper looks like mash. Testing and monitoring are done to ensure quality. When the pulp is ready, it is pressed into a sheet, which is then cut and stacked into bales, ready for shipping.

Because the finished product contains so much water, it’s expensive to ship. (Cascades is Auburn’s largest consumer of water and one of the few de-inking plants not located on a river.) Until last year, Cascades used only trucks for deliveries, but rail prices have become competitive; Martin said the company is considering it more for future shipments.

Having more delivery options is good when business is brisk. Martin said there’s been a surge in demand for paper products made with post-consumer fiber.

“There’s an uptick in the post-consumer-based paper now and we’ve definitely got a piece of that market,” said Martin.

But he’s keeping an eye on Asia, where the paper industry – and, therefore, demand for waste paper – is growing. Waste paper collectors can get $10 more a ton by exporting it.

“The (Asian producers) are using a lot of our raw materials,” said Martin. “It’s a very volatile market.”

He doubts there will be truly significant growth in the domestic market until consumers demand recycled fiber in their paper goods.

“The point is to keep it out of landfills and save trees,” he said.

Cascades is ready to do its part.

“Demand is better, competition has shrunk and we’re doing more diverse, value-added products,” he said.

“It’s all coming together at the same time.”