Conyers, GA-based Pratt Industries USA announced July 19 it will build its third USbased paper-recycling mill at the Port of Shreveport-Bossier in Louisiana.

Pratt Industries is the American division of Visy Industries of Melbourne, Australia.

The mill represents a $150-million investment and chairman & CEO Anthony Pratt said the mill should be operational in 2009. Said Pratt. “While others are shutting down plants, we’re opening them. … We currently employ 3,300 people and we’re growing.”

Designed by the Italian group Overmechanica, the mill will use 100% post-consumer fibers like its sister mills in the Staten Island borough of New York City (300-thousand tons/year) and Conyers (350-thousand tons/year). The mill will make lightweight liner and medium on a 220-in.-trim fourdrinier machine.

“Every ton of paper we recycle prevents a ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere which means that recycling is an important weapon against climate change,” said Pratt.

Together with its Australian parent, Pratt  Industries is the world’slargest privately held paper and packaging company, whose slogan, “Harvesting the Urban Forest for Better Packaging Solutions” hints at the enormous economic and “green” impact the new recycling  mill will have, in effect, make Shreveport the focal point of one of the largest recycling programs in the South.

Pratt chose Shreveport over Dallas, TX. Part of the plan is a curbside recycling program.

Globally, the Pratt Group has annual sales of over $3 billion dollars, while, in the US, Pratt Industries is the seventh largest paper packaging group, with annual sales of over $1 billion from the $100 million in 1991 when it started operations. It now
owns and operates more than 30 facilities throughout the southeast including a converting operation in New Orleans, and the paper mills in Conyers and Staten Island, NY.

The official ground breaking ceremony for the mill was slated for Wednesday, August 15.

The new mill’s product is for Pratt’s own use in the manufacture of valueadded containerboard packaging. It will consume 280,000 tons per year of mixed waste and 150,000 tons of OCC, a total of up to 430,000 tons of waste paper every year. Statistics with the announcement show that Pratt Industries and their customers will save every day: 28,000 trees (or 10 million
a year); 3,900 cubic yards of waste paper from entering landfills; 10,440,000 gallons of water; 6,115,000 kW/h of electrical energy.

The 35-acre site at the Port of Shreveport-Bossier will also be home to a material recovery facility. Pratt will begin working with the City of Shreveport on a recycling program and then extend it to surrounding cities and parishes throughout Northwest Louisiana. Pratt also will place recycle collection bins in strategic locations to make recycling accessible for all the citizens of each area. PI

www.portsb.com, www.visy.com,
www.prattindustries.com

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