Stora Enso to boost recycling capacity for paper machine

Finland-based paper and board producer Stora Enso says it is investing 23 million euros ($26 million) to increase scrap paper grade flexibility and recycled-content capacity at its containerboard mill in Varkaus, Finland.

The Varkaus mill makes unbleached softwood pulp and brown and white top containerboard for corrugated board, including kraftliner. In addition to unbleached softwood pulp, the mill currently uses about one-third domestic old corrugated containers (OCC) as raw material. The investment will further increase the potential use of recycled fiber at the site, says the company.

“The investment will increase the capacity of our recycled fiber site and give us the flexibility to increase the use of recycled fiber in our portfolio,” says Jarkko Tehomaa, Varkaus mill director. “The investment will also improve production efficiency through technical changes in both the board machine and the pulp mill drying machine. Also, our flexibility to offer different product grades to customers improves and the capacity of the site increases slightly.”

The Varkaus site is part of the Stora Enso Packaging Materials Division, which has among its sustainability goals to drive and enable the recycling of paperboard packaging products. Investments to add recycling capacity are a concrete way to support this goal, says the firm.

The annual production capacity of the Varkaus packaging board site is 450,000 tons. Preparatory work on the investment will start immediately, with Stora Enso anticipating the investment will be complete by the end of 2022.