Paper Pioneers

Longview Fibre Paper and Packaging Inc. takes pride in its efforts to conduct business in an environmentally friendly way. Located in Longview, Wash., the paper manufacturer is situated in an area known for being more forward-thinking than other geographic areas where the environment is concerned. And just like many who live in the Pacific Northwest, Longview has adopted environmental stewardship as a way of life.

Longview is one of the largest consumers of old corrugated containers (OCC) in the western U.S. It also consumes double-lined kraft (DLK). It employs approximately 1,700 people in its paper mill and seven corrugated container plants located throughout the western U.S.

The company, founded in 1927, was an early pioneer of using residual wood chips from sawmills as the primary source of its pulp to produce paper and linerboard. That commitment to the environment is still apparent today.

In 2007, Brookfield Asset Management Inc. acquired what had been a family-owned business, and Randy Nebel later became Longview’s new president.

Jan Cleiland and David West, who both have decades of paper industry experience, each had a chance to work with Nebel at Weyerhaeuser’s containerboard mill in Valliant, Okla. When they heard he was part of the new leadership at Longview, both were eager to be a part of his team.

Cleiland joined Longview in June of 2008 as recycled fiber manager, after spending her last four years at Weyerhaeuser working in the box side of the business at the Portland, Ore., preprint facility. Prior to holding that post, she bought recovered paper grades for Weyerhaeuser and Boise Cascade. The prospect of being responsible for an OCC system and working with Nebel was too exciting for her to pass up.

“It was an opportunity to come in and have a positive impact on an OCC system,” she says. “I worked for Randy for quite a while and knew that whatever Randy took on would be a success.”

West’s experience at Weyerhaeuser was in virgin fiber. He had been working as a fiber procurement manager in Valliant when the opportunity arose for him to join Longview. West had stayed in touch with Nebel and shared Cleiland’s sentiments about his ability to be successful.

“I knew Randy would turn it around. It was a smaller company, and I wanted to be part of turning something around,” recalls West. He joined Longview in June of 2008 as general manager of fiber supply.

While Cleiland and West may have both worked in Valliant, Cleiland says they didn’t work “together.” There, the recycling division was separate from the mill operations. At Longview, the two are part of the same department, with West overseeing both the recycled and virgin sides of the fiber business.

Cleiland says handling virgin and recovered fiber under one department is one of the reasons she enjoys what she does. “We work together and we understand what each other is doing. We are all part of the same team, so we are always headed in the same direction, and it is a lot of fun.”

West appreciates the direct communication that the corporate culture at Longview encourages and calls it refreshing. “There aren’t a lot of layers of executives. If we want to talk about fiber, I just say ‘Let’s sit down with the president and tell him what’s going on,’” West comments.

This hands-on approach is different than what Cleiland and West say they had each experienced at Weyerhaeuser. Cleiland adds that not having so many layers of executives means that her decisions have a direct impact on how the company performs.

“Jan gets all the credit and blame,” West muses. He agrees with Cleiland that “this is the most fun I have ever had in a job.”

RESPONSIBLE SOURCES

Cleiland and West are originally from the Southeast. Both say they are now accustomed to the Pacific Northwest way of life and the ability to recycle easily.

“It’s a different mentality,” explains Cleiland. “California, Oregon and Washington are all very environmentally conscious. I take it for granted. It’s just become part of my lifestyle that the services are there.”

The way in which Longview operates has taken that same philosophy. “It is just part of our business commitment and part of the community we live in,” says West.

He adds that as a consumer of recycled content, being located in an area that is so passionate about recycling is good for business.

In 2009, 29 percent of Longview’s pulp came from recycled sources, which include OCC and DLK; 33 percent of pulp was generated from sawmill byproducts including residual wood chips and sawdust; and 38 percent of pulp came from whole log chips from logs not suitable for lumber production.

Longview has earned certification from the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) for its paper mill and box plants because of responsible wood fiber sourcing. Based on the 2009 annual survey of its fiber suppliers, Longview says 58 percent of its wood came from SFI or American Tree Farm System (ATFS) certified forests.

REDUCING IMPACT

Longview’s commitment to the environment goes even further than what goes into its products. It is also evident in the processes used to make paper products that mitigate energy and water usage and finds other markets for the waste it creates.

At Longview, West emphasizes that safety and the environmental impact are the foremost considerations behind any decision.

“Safety and environmental performance are indicators of a well-run mill. If you don’t do those well, you aren’t going to succeed,” West says.

Longview has taken many steps over the years to reduce its environmental impact. A founding member of The Climate Registry, in 2008, it was the first pulp and paper mill to achieve Climate Registered status from the organization for reporting and verifying its greenhouse gas emissions inventory. The company says that since 2000, it has reduced total greenhouse gas emissions by more than 62 percent.

According to the company, today less than 12 percent of the mill’s total energy needs annually come from fossil fuels. This was accomplished by maximizing the use of carbon-neutral energy sources such as wood waste (hog fuel) and kraft process black-liquor-dissolved wood solids, the company says. In addition, the mill produces energy through steam production and by burning biomass. Longview says overall energy consumption has been reduced by 13 percent since 2007.

As a consumer of recycled paper, Longview also is able to recycle production scrap and put it directly back into the paper-making process. The company also uses wood chips unfit for pulping, OCC plant rejects and sludge from its wastewater treatment plant clarifiers as fuel in its hog fuel boilers. The company’s clean office scrap paper is recycled through the OCC plant.

Green liquor dregs from the company’s kraft chemical recovery process are washed more than normal to recover additional sulfur and sodium. A portland cement manufacturer then uses it in its kiln feed. Longview says it also recycles metals and printer cartridges.

Because the paper industry uses large volumes of water in the manufacturing process, Longview recognizes the importance of water conservation. The company has been able to reduce its water consumption and the recycled water it does use. Since 1970, the company says it has reduced its water usage by 33 percent. Re-using the water also reduces electrical requirements.

CHANGING MARKET

The four years that Cleiland spent in a different capacity at Weyerhaeuser were long enough for her to notice significant changes when she returned to the recovered fiber arena at Longview two years ago, she says.

“One of the first things I noticed was, ‘What happened to the quality?’ And the answer to that was single stream,” she says. “It is much different because of single stream.”

Because of the quality of the supply, Cleiland says Longview has to do more mechanically on both the recycling and paper machine sides of the business. The company also has a quality program in place.

“We’ve implemented a quality program here and we give feedback to our suppliers to let them know exactly what we are seeing inbound and what they need to do to help us,” she says.

Another way Cleiland says the market changed in the four years she was away is that recovered fiber has become a global market. Where a paper consumer on the West Coast like Longview would have to contend with export activity, that market condition is found now throughout the U.S., she says. She points out that being located on the coast limits the range from which Longview can pull supply. In the future, Cleiland predicts the industry will have to dig deeper for material to meet increasing demand.

“Export is a big part of the recycling landscape, but there are still domestic mills that need the materials,” she says. Cleiland likens the company’s supply area to a rubber band. She says it all comes down to the overall delivery cost and finding freight opportunities. “The supply area is really fluid depending on freight,” she says. Longview receives recovered fiber from areas such as Canada, Washington, Oregon and Colorado.

One benefit that Longview has, according to West, is its ability to alter the company’s furnish depending on market conditions for different fiber sources. He says Longview has more pulping than paper capacity so it can easily make everything from a 100-percent OCC product or 100-percent virgin product depending on what the market is doing. The company has the capability to consume 1,000 tons per day of OCC and 200 tons per day of DLK.

West points out that Longview’s success really depends on its suppliers of recycled and virgin material.

Both West and Cleiland emphasize, “It is a partnership. Our success depends on them.”

The author is associate editor of Recycling Today and can be contacted at ksmith@gie.net.