SALT LAKE CITY — In the last five years, the use of cardboard has grown by 40% due to the booming e-commerce industry. A paper production company, Crossroads Paper, is looking to change the way Utahns recycle their cardboard.

Crossroads paper has plans to construct a recycled-paper mill in Utah, expected to open in early 2022, the company announced Wednesday afternoon at the Red Butte Garden in Salt Lake City. The announcement of the paper mill drew support from recycling organizations and government officials, Lt. Governor Spencer Cox, and Val Hale, executive director of the Utah Governor’s Office of Economic Development.

“For the past several years, our recycling ecosystem has undergone a series of challenges,” said Crossroads Paper CEO John Sasine. “We are here to share with you a different and hopeful view. Once completed, it will be the only operating paper mill in the state. Currently, the closest paper mills to Utah are in New Mexico, Oregon and California.”

Lauren Frisch, owner of Box Essentials and Wasatch Container, said having a paper mill in Utah will “tremendously” reduce her supply costs.

Currently, 80% of the raw material she orders to assemble boxes to her clients comes from California. “Just the transit alone increases the overall cost of the box,” she said. “Right now it takes about three to four days to get our paper to us. With this paper mill here … we’ll have paper in our facility within 24 hours and we’ll be able to get a customer a (custom printed) box within three to four days.”

This article was originally posted on KSL – Jul11th 2019 @ 8:00am – You can read the full article here.