Paper mill closing leaves gap in C&D wood market

The idling of a paper mill in Oregon has dried up the market for lower grade scrap wood in that region, causing a local government agency to rescind a landfill ban.

An online notice  from the Metro Portland agency lists “treated wood, laminated wood, railroad ties, painted wood and other construction waste” as materials that can now be landfilled.

Portland’s Metro Council rescinded the prior ban after the announced idling of the former SP Fiber Technologies paper mill in Newberg, Oregon, by its new owner WestRock.

“That mill burned about 350 tons of the Portland region’s wood waste every day, keeping that wood from being buried in a landfill,” says Metro Portland in its Metro News online article.

Adds the agency, “The Newberg mill was unique in that it was old – so old in that it was exempted from recent federal regulations on its boilers. It could burn treated wood, laminated wood, railroad ties, painted wood and other construction waste that was sent there from the Portland region’s recovery facilities.”

Other markets for clean or “blonde” wood remain available, according to Metro Portland, but the lower grade wood scrap may now have to be landfilled.

“About 60,000 tons of wood a year will now be sent to landfills,” the agency estimates.