: Our Shopping Obsession Is a Boon to Box Makers, But Not to Their Neighbors #WorldNEWS The world is on a spending spree, and no matter what you’re buying, it’s probably going to have been

Our Shopping Obsession Is a Boon to Box Makers, But Not to Their Neighbors #WorldNEWS
The world is on a spending spree, and no matter what you’re buying, it’s probably going to have been in a box at some point along its route to you.
That means companies are rushing to build pulp mills and box factories to meet demand, and many of them are in the United States. About 40 billion boxes—equal to 407 billion square feet, which is roughly the size of Switzerland —were shipped in the U. S. in 2020, surpassing the previous record from 1999 set amidst a hot economy and burgeoning e-commerce. This year is likely to beat that record; in the first nine months of 2021, box shipments were up 3. 9% from 2020, according to the Fibre Box Association.
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But making paper products is a smelly operation, and as more box factories expand into U. S. neighborhoods, there’s come a pushback from people who don’t want to be downwind of an American manufacturing revival.
In South Carolina, three groups of plaintiffs filed lawsuits this summer against New-Indy, a company that converted a paper mill to make containerboard, saying the conversion has made the air dangerous and unhealthy; the state received more than 17,000 complaints of noxious odors from citizens near the New-Indy plant in the first half of this year, which it calls “an unprecedented number. ”
New York state fined a Niagara Falls paper mill 5,000 in September for “intolerable odors” that it said impacted the health of the surrounding neighborhood, especially in the summer; the mill, Cascades Containerboard Packaging, agreed to spend millions of dollars in equipment upgrades. The mill says the smell comes from sludge created when the plant processes recycled paper into cardboard, and this recycled sludge was generated at higher rates this year to meet higher demand for boxes.

David Goldman—APThe Midwest Paper Group mill in Combined Locks, Wis. , is seen from across the the river in Little Chute, Wis. , on Aug. 18, 2020. The mill is one of many that switched its focus from producing paper to cardboard for boxes as online shopping soared.

And in Kalamazoo, Mich. , residents filed a lawsuit against paperboard maker Graphic Packaging International after they say the company started production on a machine that would increase output by 500,000 tons a year; the residents say the mill has “discharged discrete and offensive noxious odors, air particulates, and fugitive dust” into the air.
Adding to the tensions: many of these odor-emitting factories are in communities of color, which by virtue of zoning laws find themselves tucked against industrial zones. People of color account for the bulk of exposure to industrial pollutants in the United States, according to a study published in April in ScienceAdvances.