Turning Straw Into Valuable Product

Turning Straw Into Valuable Product

In 2015, Columbia Pulp will break ground on a new facility near Dayton, Washington that will process straw into pulp for paper making. Columbia Pulp President John Begley gives more details about the process
Begley: “The process itself has been going on for almost 20 years. It started with the Ag Burning Task Force in Washington, looking at what to do with the residual burning. Where we are right now is that we’ve pretty much through all of our permitting. We are hoping to break ground in early 2015 and start up the plant in early 2016.”
Even though the plant isn’t yet build, Columbia Pulp isn’t waiting to begin finding sources for their straw as Begley explains
Begley: “We’ve begun to solicit supply and looking at bringing contracts up for the straw supply. We are creating a list of people to talk to — and we’ve started that process. We will be using about 240,000 tons of straw a year — mostly wheat straw.”
Begley provides additional information about the facility’s production.
Begley: “The mill is about 140,000 tons a year of finished product. It will be paper-grade pulp that will be used for packaging grades of food containers and things like that. We will be employing 135 people at the site and then with the multiplier-effect of all the supply and everything it will probably be bringing in something like 500 jobs to the area.”

 

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