BIRON — The transformation of a 127-year-old paper mill in Biron is complete.
For decades, employees at the facility produced lightweight coated paper for magazines and catalogs. Now, workers create packaging grade paper made completely from recycled material.
"The Biron mill is a special place," where generations of families have worked, said Caleb Coder, the mill's manager and ND Paper Biron Division vice president.
"The mill is a cornerstone of the Wisconsin Rapids area," he said, "and we are honored to operate here in central Wisconsin."
Roughly 60 people, including Gov. Tony Evers and local leaders from Biron and Wisconsin Rapids, gathered Thursday at the mill, 621 N. Biron Drive, for the grand opening of a newly-built recycling facility that feeds the mills recently-converted paper machines.
The investments made by ND Paper, the mill's owner, are part of the company's vision to keep the facility operating for another century, and Thursday's grand opening marked a "significant milestone" for the mill, said Michael LaVerdiere, ND Paper's executive vice president and chief operating officer.
"Our pulp and paper industry is at the core of Wisconsin's economy," Evers told the crowd.
Despite challenges in recent years, "this industry continues to grow and be resilient and find new ways to stay on top," Evers said, "and that includes right here at this facility."
How and why ND Paper made changes at the Biron mill
Shortly after buying the facility in 2018, ND Paper announced it wouldinvest $189 millionin the Biron mill. The company pointed to growth in packaging and e-commerce, as well as consumer demand for more sustainable products, for the changes it has made.
In 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, employees converted the B25 paper machine from making lightweight coated paper to producing brown paper for cardboard boxes, paper bags and other packaging materials.
Last month, the team finished converting the B26 machine, and the new on-site recycling facility was completed.
The Biron facility runs 24/7, and a lot of what is made at the mill is sent to ND Packaging — ND Paper's sister company — almost 200 miles southeast in Sturtevant, through a related trucking company, Dragon Express.
More:Why tissue, packaging and specialty papers look promising for Wisconsin's paper industry
Facility helps turn recycled boxes into new products
Attendees at the grand opening Thursday watched a drone video showing the scale of new recycling facility before touring it themselves.
As they entered, visitors saw bales of recycled materials, including cardboard boxes from big-box stores and pizza boxes from residents' recycling bins, stacked in neat sections. Most of the items arrive from within a four-hour radius of the mill.
Employees used forklifts to place the bales on a large blue conveyor belt, which takes the recycled items to be mixed with water, turned into pulp and fed to the paper machines.
The facility currently supplies the mill with 1,400 metric tons of old corrugated container pulp each day, with a goal of eventually reaching 2,000 metric tons daily.
The investment helps the mill reduce energy consumption, and the vast majority of water is reused, according to LaVerdiere. The facility also helps reduce landfill waste by turning recycled items into new products, LaVerdiere said.
The Biron mill is hiring, and the state provided money for training
To help train employees on how to work with this new equipment and facility, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development awarded ND Paper $322,840 through the Wisconsin Fast Forward grant program.
The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. also previously awarded ND Paper$1.7 million in tax creditsover three years to support the expansions at the Biron division.
More than 300 people work at at the Biron mill, and the company is currently hiring for multiple positions in engineering, finance, maintenance and operations.
On Thursday, Coder thanked all of the employees who worked hard to make the conversion to being a 100% recycled facility possible.
"We have some of the most talented and skilled professionals on our team," he said.
The mill's history, from the 19th century to ND Paper
Biron began making paper in 1896 and was owned by Consolidated Papers Inc. for decades.
In 2000, Consolidated sold to Helsinki-based Stora Enso Oyj, who then sold to Ohio-based NewPage Corp., in 2007. The company filed for Chapter 11 protection in 2011 and announced plans to sell the company to Verso in 2014. Before thatmerger was finalized, though, NewPagesold its millsin Biron and Rumford, Maine, to Catalyst Paper Holdings, who thensold Biron to Nine Dragons Paperin 2018 for $175 million.
ND Paper is a subsidiary of Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Ltd., which is based out of Hong Kong. ND Paper itself is headquartered in Oak Brook, Illinois.
In addition to Biron, ND Paper owns facilities in Old Town and Rumford, Maine, and in Fairmont, West Virginia.
More:Wisconsin doesn't make as much printing and writing paper as it used to. Here's why a few local mills still do
Reach Becky Jacobs at bjacobs@gannett.com or 920-993-7117. Follow her on Twitter at@ruthyjacobs.
