Billion dollar paperboard plant for Texas

US firm Graphic Packaging International is investing US$ 1 billion (EUR 936 million) in a ‘high-tech’ paperboard recycling plant in Waco, Texas.

Graphic Packaging wants to break ground this spring on the six hectare facility in Texas Central Park. The mill will convert corrugated box cardboard into thinner paperboard packaging for cereal boxes and other consumer products. Production is scheduled to start by the end of 2025.

The company says the site will create 230 new jobs and it is finalising an economic development deal with the city of Waco, McLennan County, Waco Industrial Foundation and the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce.

This project follows the opening of a similar plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, at the end of 2022. Graphic Packaging points out this site represents the first new coated-recycled paperboard line to be built in the US in decades.

The company says recycled paper and board products are becoming increasingly more popular as companies look to replace plastic packaging.