During my decade plus writing and publishing about the Rust Belt, I have spent many hours indulging in one of my possibly unfortunate hobbies: staring and thinking about industrial ruins (aka ruin porn); I even have an abandoned Substack about it).
I already left a comment about paper mills in Holyoke, MA, but I wanted to add a comment about where publishers got paper these days, since I think I know.
Once a cheap process was invented for recycling paper, which is easy to make acid neutral or acid free, publishers started buying it. At Consumer Reports Books, the last publisher where I worked, all our books were printed on recycled paper, which does not turn brown when it ages.
I did not buy paper but my department head did. She was very supportive of transitioning Consumer Reports magazine over to acid free recycled paper.
Books printed on acid free paper also do not turn brown as they age. This is especially nice for art books or any book that contains a lot of artwork or photographs.
I actually have made paper! One of my teachers taught me how to do it when I was in college working on my B.F.A. But I saw her make paper from the leaves of hosta plants and other materials. It’s very stinky. She used to use lye but eventually developed lung problems so switched to baking soda.
I was talking about the end product, the actual paper used to print books, not the existence or lack of it of factories. I actually know how to make paper from paper I put through my shredder, but since I live in an apartment building with no outdoors access, I would not make it here. The paper I made was from a company that sent me a gallon of cotton fiber that I did not need to process at all. At that time I also lived in an apartment with outdoors access so I could work outside.
A paper making factory would pretty much work the same way, I imagine: smelly but large. Plus they would be using paper that had already been used. They would need to remove the ink already present then go from there. As I stated, they can make the paper acid-free, which is a boon for book publishers. I never meant to imply they wouldn’t process it in a factory. Of course they would.
For a while I rented office space in Holyoke, MA, which used to have a lot of paper making factories. In fact, it was known as “the Paper City.” When I wanted to take a break, I’d walk among the gigantic hunks of wheels that used to power the mills using water in two canals that snaked through the city. I loved photographing those wreckages. The buildings were in the process of being repurposed so they were kind of interesting as well. But it was the derelict machinery that I was drawn to.
Cincinnatian here, I knew our city had a big printing industry especially back in the day (I used to work at the University of Cincinnati archives and we had some great collections of local printers union records with the most beautiful convention programs I’ve ever seen) but this fills in some missing supply chain gaps I had never really thought about with that history. Thanks for writing this up.
Fascinating! Love those videos. I’m always interested in where stuff comes from, how it’s made. I hope out of the ashes, a new, tree-free paper can be born, one that isn’t damaging to the environment.
Thank you for the info! So interesting. My grandpa worked in the boiler room of the Willamette Falls Paper Mill outside of Portland, OR for over 35 years (1940-80s). It was closed in 2017, then (surprise) a private equity firm reopened it in 2019, then (surprise again!) they laid off 70 percent of its workforce last year.
I already left a comment about paper mills in Holyoke, MA, but I wanted to add a comment about where publishers got paper these days, since I think I know.
Once a cheap process was invented for recycling paper, which is easy to make acid neutral or acid free, publishers started buying it. At Consumer Reports Books, the last publisher where I worked, all our books were printed on recycled paper, which does not turn brown when it ages.
I did not buy paper but my department head did. She was very supportive of transitioning Consumer Reports magazine over to acid free recycled paper.
Books printed on acid free paper also do not turn brown as they age. This is especially nice for art books or any book that contains a lot of artwork or photographs.
Recycled paper still needs to be made into pulp and then processed in a mill
I actually have made paper! One of my teachers taught me how to do it when I was in college working on my B.F.A. But I saw her make paper from the leaves of hosta plants and other materials. It’s very stinky. She used to use lye but eventually developed lung problems so switched to baking soda.
I was talking about the end product, the actual paper used to print books, not the existence or lack of it of factories. I actually know how to make paper from paper I put through my shredder, but since I live in an apartment building with no outdoors access, I would not make it here. The paper I made was from a company that sent me a gallon of cotton fiber that I did not need to process at all. At that time I also lived in an apartment with outdoors access so I could work outside.
A paper making factory would pretty much work the same way, I imagine: smelly but large. Plus they would be using paper that had already been used. They would need to remove the ink already present then go from there. As I stated, they can make the paper acid-free, which is a boon for book publishers. I never meant to imply they wouldn’t process it in a factory. Of course they would.
For a while I rented office space in Holyoke, MA, which used to have a lot of paper making factories. In fact, it was known as “the Paper City.” When I wanted to take a break, I’d walk among the gigantic hunks of wheels that used to power the mills using water in two canals that snaked through the city. I loved photographing those wreckages. The buildings were in the process of being repurposed so they were kind of interesting as well. But it was the derelict machinery that I was drawn to.
Yes. Sigh. This year I'm focusing on ebooks because I don't think I can justify the prices for paperback.
Interested in the topic. Sorry, not interested in what Claude has to say! Abandoned reading. What does Anne have to say? .
It's a summary, in italics, of private equity buying up American paper mills.
Cincinnatian here, I knew our city had a big printing industry especially back in the day (I used to work at the University of Cincinnati archives and we had some great collections of local printers union records with the most beautiful convention programs I’ve ever seen) but this fills in some missing supply chain gaps I had never really thought about with that history. Thanks for writing this up.
Fascinating! Love those videos. I’m always interested in where stuff comes from, how it’s made. I hope out of the ashes, a new, tree-free paper can be born, one that isn’t damaging to the environment.
Great article.
Thank you for the info! So interesting. My grandpa worked in the boiler room of the Willamette Falls Paper Mill outside of Portland, OR for over 35 years (1940-80s). It was closed in 2017, then (surprise) a private equity firm reopened it in 2019, then (surprise again!) they laid off 70 percent of its workforce last year.
The mill on the other side of the river (Blue Heron) which closed 15 years ago is slated for redevelopment led entirely by an intertribal organization: https://www.willamettefallstrust.org/willamette-falls-inter-tribal-public-access-project. I have some pretty great ruin photos of that one; will email you them when I find them.
Thank you 🙏🏼 looking for more deep dives like this on the future of book publishing in the coming Trump Depression.
Really interesting — thanks!