Recycling

A reorganization of its procurement efforts, along with a $6 million sorting center, helps the Dublin, Ga., newsprint producer improve incoming secondary fiber quality

Southeast Paper Improves Fiber Quality with Education, Sorting Investments

Southeast Recycling expanded along with the mill in the late 1980s when a new paper machine was added. At the time of the new machine startup in 1989, the division was coordinating the delivery of about 550,000 tpy of sorted ONP to Dublin. Consumption by 1997 has grown to 650,000 tpy.

However, as recycling became a "hot button" public and political issue during that time, fiber collected from municipalities began to flood the market and a number of new secondary fiber-based newsprint mills came onstream. These rapid changes affected the scrap paper market dramatically from a business standpoint, but it also had an impact on secondary fiber quality. Southeast Paper began to notice a steady increase in the contamination of ONP.

According to Dr. James Burke, president and CEO of Southeast Paper, "A higher-quality raw material is necessary to manufacture a high-quality recycled content newsprint product. This dictates the consuming mills take additional steps to guarantee the quality of the recovered fiber introduced to the newsprint manufacturing operation."

Following the wild market swings of 1994 and 1995, Southeast Paper (a partnership of Cox Enterprises, Knight-Ridder, and Media General) revamped the way it collects recovered fiber. Included is an investment of $6 million to set up what is probably the world's largest ONP sorting center and initiating an education program that seeks to re-establish the quality specifications for ONP.

NEED FOR REORGANIZATION. As described in the 1990 P&P article, Southeast Recycling was essentially run as a separate division, not only collecting ONP and other scrap paper grades but processed curbside recyclables such as glass and aluminum, as well. The division even bid for and ran one small residential curbside collection operation.

However, the mid-1990s market swings prompted Southeast management to examine how it approached the recyclables collection business. "Since producing newsprint is Southeast Paper's core business, anything the company does in recycling should focus purely on that business," says Glenn Hill, who coordinated the sorting facility project as recycling center manager and is now production improvement projects manager. Southeast stopped processing non-paper grades at its recycling centers except where under contract.

"Focusing on our core business necessitates the collection of very clean ONP," Hill says. "In an ideal world, we would receive black and white old newspapers. We know that is not completely realistic, but we want to come as close to that goal as we can."

Southeast Paper renamed the recycling division as Southeast Paper Recycling Co. and divided into three groups, including:

• Newspaper Recycling Group. Headquartered in Marietta, Ga., this group consists of Southeast's 22 collection facilities in seven states responsible for procurement of ONP through community recycling programs. Much of the collection is done through community groups (Boy Scouts, churches, civic groups, etc.) and by placing more than 5,000 recycling bins accessible to the public at near major stores (K-Mart, Kroger, etc.). The newspaper recycling group is responsible for collecting about 300,000 tpy of the total 650,000 tons the mill uses every year.

• Material Management Group. Also based in Marietta, this group is responsible for purchasing the remaining ONP through scrap paper dealers, brokers, and publishers. According to Jim Fletcher, executive vice president, the group offers secure contracts to suppliers that commit and agree to meet quality standards.

• Recycling Plant. Instead of sorting at Southeast's numerous collection facilities, ONP is collected and shipped to the massive sorting center adjoined with the Dublin mill. "This part of the reorganization is where we closely monitor and control fiber quality going to the pulpers," Fletcher says.

TAKING A STAND. One reason Southeast Paper's secondary fiber cleanliness requirements are higher than other recycled newsprint mills is that its deinking processÑa washing processÑis not designed to use old magazines, whereas recycled newsprint mills that use flotation deinking do benefit from OMG content. Southeast is also unique in being a 100% recycled content mill.

But Southeast views the problem of recovered fiber contamination not just based on its own process and fiber needs but from an overall industry standpoint. "The whole thrust of our effort is to assure that the old newspaper market is a quality-based market," Fletcher says. "The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries' (ISRI) No. 8 specifications stated 1/4 of 1% contaminants, but the grade being offered by dealers and brokers was at 3%-5% contaminants."

He adds, "We have had significant interest from other recycled fiber-based mills in what we are doing. What we should all be working toward is making the recovered paper market what it should be, where quality is just as important as tons or price."

There are numerous reasons why contaminant levels increased. Bob Rickman, manager of the Dublin recycling center, points to the startup of several recycled newsprint operations as one factor. Because those mills were new to the recycled newsprint market and their systems were based on flotation deinking, the wastepaper they were receiving was not strictly meeting ISRI's No. 8 specification.

Rickman says that for Southeast the main problem was that large scrap paper dealers supply several different newsprint producers in the South and ship the same type of material to all of them. Since Southeast Paper is the only mill in the region that uses 100% ONP fiber instead of an ONP/OMG fiber mix, lower-quality raw material is not acceptable at the Dublin mill.

Another factor was the sudden flood of paper onto the market. Fletcher blames much of the deterioration in ONP quality on curbside collection programs. "Our analysis showed us that we really needed to move away from curbside material, unless it is presorted," he says. The 21 divisions that make up the Newspaper Recycling Group, Fletcher says, will primarily act as traditional scrap paper dealers and transfer ONP to the mill with only a minimal amount of sorting.

Rickman says that prior to the early 1990s, curbside programs were mostly based on curbside sorting, so fiber quality was fairly good. But newer recycling programs that grew out of the late 1980s and were based on co-mingled collection recyclables meant a need for more sorting.

Another part of the problem was that scrap paper prices climbed during the 1993-1995 period, which offered the opportunity for collectors of wastepaper to put more material into the system. "At that time, we saw many of the programs advocating mixed residential paper collection, where residents co-mingled 15 grades of paper together or added other recyclables," Fletcher says. "There were consultants telling these municipal programs that there would be plenty of markets for that mixed material, and that the economics would allow for sorting. There was also a big push to export material."

But then the prices for recycled fiber dropped almost as fast as they climbed. "Suddenly we had a market filled with mixed paper at traditional price levels with no room in the economics to sort," Fletcher explains. "At that point, we did some extensive studies. We decided there are plenty of good suppliers in the market, we have enough internal supply, and we consume enough ONP. With all that combined, we thought a comprehensive program of education and quality verification would satisfy our fiber needs. And that program has accomplished what we set out to do."

SUPPLIER EDUCATION. The number of suppliers to the mill fluctuates but typically averages more than 200. The sorting facility, Rickman notes, is designed to sort only those tons collected through our recycling centers. Southeast is taking steps to ensure that such a labor intensive sorting effort won't be necessary. The emphasis, therefore, is on education of the newspaper reader and the dealer.

"Sixty percent or more of our fiber is presorted paper from outside suppliers, so we instituted a program of aggressively educating our suppliers on the quality of ONP we need," he says. The Southeast Paper Recycling division (SPRC) has primary responsibility for purchasing quality raw material under dealer contracts while educating municipalities and suppliers.

Fletcher says that initially the education took place face to face with all suppliers. As part of its program, Southeast developed information to aid in making presentations and visited suppliers to explain the mill's need for improved secondary fiber quality. Now, new suppliers are trained and certified by one of the SPRC employees, and then the first several loads delivered to Dublin are tested more thoroughly.

For suppliers that aren't meeting the mill's needs, Southeast goes into the plants and explains what contaminants are and what the specifications are for the mill's fiber needs. "For all our suppliers, we explain to them what outthrows and prohibitives are," Rickman says. "We actually go out and sort paperÑtheir paperÑwith them at their site. From that we essentially form a partnership with them and try to work toward continuous improvement."

Fletcher adds, "We will guarantee volumes and market prices to our contract suppliers, but we ask that they continuously improve toward our target and stay on a curve that we establish together." He gives an example of how Southeast helped improve the quality of one of its worst suppliers. The contract was developed with a municipality that worked with a national waste hauler to handle sorting. While the volume of paper was good, Hill says the quality was poor. Since the contract was with the municipality, Southeast contacted municipal managers and worked with them to improve the quality of fiber delivered to the mill.

"Their initial reaction was, 'We can't do that,'" Rickman says. "But what has come out of our combined efforts is that they are improving the quality of scrap paper. We are still buying the same volume of paper at market prices and they are steadily improving their quality. And in 1998, their curbside program will shift to curbside sorting of newspapers. That is what we hope to see in many municipal recycling programs."

While developing its education program, the mill set up a formal sampling program where almost every load delivered to the Dublin sorting center is sampled. Within 24 hours, the supplier gets a full report by fax on the shipment, including the percentage of outthrows, the primary and secondary contaminants, and the amount of moisture in the load.

"We keep an extensive database on the performance-daily, monthly, yearly-of our suppliers," Rickman says. "That helps us constantly evaluate them, and we also use that analysis as part of our ISO certification, because our department certifies the type and quality of fiber that has gone to the pulper."

Even Southeast's own collection divisions get a report card. Fletcher comments that unlike the operating strategy in the past, where the emphasis was on volume generation, the emphasis now is on how much "clean" ONP the divisions can generate.

Southeast's specifications call for ONP with 0.5% contamination level. This is slightly higher than the 1/4 of 1% ISRI specification. Rickman comments that the No. 8 pack in the southeast U.S. had degenerated. However, through Southeast's efforts, the contamination level of incoming paper is down to about 1% after almost a year of aggressive supplier education.

SORTING OPERATION. Constructed within 17 acres of warehouse space, the Dublin sorting center, which began operation in October 1996, is estimated by Southeast Paper to be the largest ONP sorting facility in the world, with the capacity to handle much more than the current ONP tons collected through its recycling centers. The mill currently takes in approximately 1,800 tpd of ONP delivered primarily by truck but also by rail. A majority of the incoming paper is delivered loose to the receiving facility, with an average of 20% -30% coming in baled.

Of the 1,800 tpd, the center sorts only internally generated tons. The excess capacity is to accommodate additional tons due to a recently announced paper machine upgrade project (see related sidebar, "First shoe press on U.S. newsprint machine"). The remaining tonnage coming in that meets pulp ready specifications are is ready to enter the process directly.

Every load is inspected, with a random sample pulled from each truck or rail load as it is dumped. In addition, dump operators are trained to watch the falling ONP to spot major contamination problems and higher than normal moisture content. Based on the quality of the paper, it will either go directly to the sorter for contaminant removal or conveyed or moved by mobile equipment to the pulpers. Suppliers that fail to meet Southeast Paper's No. 8 ONP quality specs will not be allowed to continue shipping to the Dublin mill.

Baled paper, obviously, is kept for inventory and is rotated out before the quality deteriorates due to age. The ability to blend older, baled paper with newer loose fiber allows the mill to maintain a consistent quality feeding to the pulper.

Prior to going through the sorting line, baled paper is sent through a Hall Manufacturing bale dewiring unit, purchased by Southeast based on its 95+% efficiency in removing wires. The most important aspect, Rickman says, is the dewiring unit's ability to remove wire effectively while eliminating the danger involved with manual wire cutting.

Dewired bales are sent to a trammel that basically acts as a bale breaker. Broken bales are then added to the mixture of loose paper that enters the sorting lines. Equipment for the sorting lines was purchased from Krauss Manufacturing of Bellingham, Wash., through a distributor in San Antonio, Texas. The facility is patterned after one installed at the Norpac mill in Longview, Wash., which uses the same Krauss equipment.

The sorting facility has four separate sorting lines normally staffed with six employees on each line running four shifts to manually remove contaminants as they pass by on conveyor. Thus, at full capacity, the facility could employ 96 people total dedicated to sorting ONP. Another 36 employees are performing such ONP handling functions as unloading rail cars and trucks, processing of the ONP to the pulpers, inventorying, and maintaining equipment. The sorting lines have the capacity for 12 sorters on each line, but the mill currently doesn't need the fiber capacity that such staffing levels would require.

As part of Southeast Paper's community outreach efforts, two of the four sorting lines are staffed by Middle Georgia Easter Seals, which provides disabled workers for the sorting positions. Easter Seals employees are responsible for sorting on two of the daytime shifts.

Two sorting lines are dedicated to loose ONP, and two are dedicated to baled ONP. The sorting conveyors are raised above floor level to enable sorters to drop contaminants onto the floor below.

Sorters are stationed at points along the line and remove specified contaminants at those stations. Thus, contaminants such as magazines, plastic, or kraft papers are collected together for easy bundling. Sorters remove approximately 1,000 tons/month of what Southeast considers contaminants. Rickman identifies about 30% as magazines, another 60% as a mix of other papers (OCC, brown bags, ledger grades, junk mail, cereal boxes, telephone books), and the remaining 10% as trash (plastic, metal, etc.). Since that material is already separated,

Rickman says it is easily sold to other mills or scrap dealers that desire the cleanliness of what they can get from Southeast's sorting center.

Rickman says the sorting center employees also sample contaminants, breaking them out into different groups. The organization that supplied that paper will receive feedback on the amount of the various contaminants in their loads.

RickmanÑwho is responsible for the logistical aspects of getting the fiber unloaded, sorting it, managing inventory, and getting it to the pulperÑsays that the analysis isn't done only in the sorting facility. The mill purchased two automated Pulmac screen units for its testing laboratory that make handsheets from a pulp sample. Taking a sample every four hours and using a flatbed scanner, Southeast analyzes the handsheet with a program developed in-house that computes an equivalent to dirt count in both parts per million and in area. The tests enable Southeast to study the effects of sorting as well as the performance of the deinking equipment.

"We are very attentive to our pulp quality and developed some of these tests to eliminate much of the subjective analysis," says Mark Rawlings, Southeast Paper's vice president and mill manager. "Instead of reacting to comments such as, 'The sheet looks dirty' we know the contaminant level of fiber going onto the machine. We then are able to discuss contamination issues with the fiber suppliers, who can react accordingly."

Rickman adds, "Because we have continuous pulpers, we can tie the quality of raw material to the quality of the finished product," he says. "We have even been able to see a swing in brightness in our sampling of the pulp and on the paper machines and find out what load we were processing at the time. We can even identify the age (in inventory) of the paper and which supplier it came from."