News

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has confirmed the launch of its third generation belted single facer, the 60N, which is rated at 450 m/min. MHI developed its first Pressure belt machine over 30 years ago. Since then, MHI never returned to roll pressure machines, always prioritizing high quality of the board produced and reliability of the […]

Hunt Valley, Maryland based MHIA announced significant enhancements to its EVOL Digital Services program, highlighted by the expansion of the EVOL AR Library and its integration with the Maintenance Agreement Visits (MAVs). The expanded EVOL AR Library now features a complete set of augmented reality-enhanced procedures for the EVOL 100, providing a comprehensive collection of […]

SEATTLE (May 17, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced PotlatchDeltic Land & Lumber, LLC, of St. Maries, Idaho, will pay $225,000 for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act.  PotlatchDeltic sits within the Coeur d’ Alene Tribe’s reservation and discharges into a section of the St. Joe River that is Tribal waters. The St. Joe River flows into Lake Coeur d’ Alene and is critical habitat for bull trout. Under the Clean Water Act, PotlatchDeltic is required to comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits.  EPA conducted an inspection in March 2017 to evaluate PotlatchDeltic’s compliance with its permits and found PotlatchDeltic had numerous stormwater violations, such as failure to implement corrective actions following continued benchmark exceedances and implement adequate stormwater pollution prevention plan controls.  Stormwater runoff from lumber facilities containing zinc and other pollutants, when not treated and discharged directly into nearby waterbodies, can cause significant harm to rivers, lakes and coastal waters.   PotlatchDeltic agreed to extensive remedies to come into and remain in compliance with its Clean Water Act permits, including facility improvements, construction of a new filtration system and combining its outfalls.  PotlatchDeltic also agreed to perform two mitigation actions designed to protect and enhance habitat for trout and salmon in Hangman Creek on PotlatchDeltic’s property and within the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s reservation. Specifically, PotlatchDeltic will place a Conservation Easement on its property that will provide 100-year, no timber harvest stream buffers of 75-feet along more than 17,800 feet of shoreline for five streams, protecting about 61.25 acres.  PotlatchDeltic also agreed to replace four road culverts on its property that are currently blocking fish passage and limiting access to spawning habitat.   “Industrial facilities must have stormwater pollution controls in place to protect our waters,” said EPA Region 10 Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Director Ed Kowalski. “We are pleased the company took swift action to improve their operations and prevent pollution — actions that will ultimately help our water quality in the Pacific Northwest.”  &nbs […]

Greg Smith, who is operating Printed Specialties, a successful $14M folding carton printing company in Carrollton, Georgia, places a high premium on speed and quality. That is why he chose a Koenig & Bauer Rapida 106 six-color plus coater for his pressroom. “One of our biggest goals was to enhance reliability and uptime, decrease waste, […]

Chicago, Illinois based R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (RRD), a global provider of marketing, packaging, print, and supply chain solutions, announced the celebration of its 160th anniversary this year, commemorating a legacy of innovation and excellence. “It is an honor to celebrate RRD’s 160th anniversary and to reflect on our rich history while recognizing who […]

Bennington, New Hampshire based Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc., the oldest continuously operating paper mill in the US, announced the appointment of Chloe Jones as the new Director of Marketing and Communications. Chloe brings an entrepreneurial spirit and a nearly three-decades-long background in marketing to her new role. In addition to a successful 17-year tenure as […]

COLUMBIA, SC (May 16, 2024) — As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative, a groundbreaking effort to help communities across the nation navigate the EPA’s Inflation Reduction Act investments and other new funding opportunities made possible by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the EPA is hosting a national series of in-person, community-based Regional Roadshow events. On Monday, May 13, 2024, the roadshow stopped in Florence, SC. to provide local leaders opportunities to come together to develop or leverage community-based partnerships to implement local climate and environmental justice solutions.  “EPA’s Regional Roadshow is critical in helping communities learn and cultivate ideas on how to access unprecedented EPA resources to confront the climate crisis and advance environmental justice.” said Theresa Segovia, Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights. “We are so thankful that the communities in Florence, South Carolina have allowed us to share more about EPA’s opportunities, and we look forward to celebrating the work that’s already being done by local leaders and groups.” “Ensuring that the unprecedented investments from the Inflation Reduction Act—a key component of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda—reach those most profoundly affected by climate and environmental challenges is of critical importance,” said Jennifer Macedonia, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Implementation for the Office of Air and Radiation. “Through EPA’s Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative and the Regional Roadshow events, we are equipping historically underserved communities with the essential resources, vital information, and unwavering support they need to create needed change.”  “The Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative creates engagements that are designed to spark ideas on how to take advantage of Investing in America programs,” said Acting EPA Region 4 Administrator Jeaneanne Gettle. “The various sessions provided opportunities for local community leaders to leverage existing community-based partnerships and cultivate ideas on the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs.” “It was an honor to host the CER Regional Roadshow for Region 4 in Florence, South Carolina. I believe the elements of this program will be a major tool in moving Florence forward and toward being a green city,” said Florence Mayor, Teresa Myers Ervin. “I would personally like to thank CER Regional Roadshow for providing resources for our citizens and neighboring communities, so that they may have access to resources to meet their individual goals.” "As one of the Thriving Communities Technical Assistance Centers (TCTAC) serving EPA Region 4 and the State of South Carolina, we were excited to co-sponsor this roadshow event," said Dr. Beverly Wright, Founder and Executive Director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. "The event was a great opportunity to share information about the technical assistance and training our Center offers to help community-based organizations seize this moment of opportunity to secure funding to accelerate their community vision for change." Through this initiative, the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation and Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights are providing spaces for communities to develop new or deeper community-based partnerships. Regional Roadshow attendees will learn about historic funding and technical assistance through programming that is designed to be especially helpful for overburdened communities. These events will help them confront the climate crisis and advance environmental justice locally as they learn, connect, and cultivate ideas on how to access these extraordinary resources.  Discover more and register for the Regional Roadshow event in Florence, SC. Upcoming Regional Roadshow Events and Community, Equity & Resiliency Resources  To learn more about the Community, Equity & Resiliency initiative, watch the Virtual Open House panel discussions and fireside chats, access resources to help communities and register for upcoming events, visit the EPA’s Community, Equity & Resiliency webpage. ### […]

The child-resistant cap for amber vials features a two-step opening procedure for people with limited dexterity. […]

Star Wars Oreo cookies, wine packaging market, five PET innovations at NPE, Pringles new bagged snacks, Not Beer water, reusable food packaging expands. […]

Paterson, New Jersey based Accurate Box Company is proudly celebrating its 80th anniversary, commemorating eight decades of success and innovation in the packaging industry. Since its inception in 1944, Accurate Box has grown from a small, family-owned business to a leading provider of high-quality, litho-laminated packaging to companies across North America. “Reaching this milestone of […]

The Foundation for Packaging Education announced its heartfelt appreciation to Package Crafters for its commitment to advancing education and training within the packaging industry. Package Crafters, under the leadership of Gary Brewer, President, has fulfilled its multi-year pledge to the Foundation a year ahead of schedule. “Being intimately involved with the Foundation from its inception, […]

Will your special-edition cookie packaging contain characters for the light side or the dark side of the Force? […]

Bobst and Henkel partner, ink insights for flexibles, nanotech coating benefits, OPE films future, new sausage wrap, FPA spotlights spouted refill pouch. […]

The Fibre Box Association (FBA) and AICC, The Independent Packaging Association, will recognize 447 corrugated industry plants for safety achievements in 2023. Safety Awards are given based on data compiled for the recently released 2023 Corrugated Container Industry Annual Report of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. Participants appreciate the ability to recognize their plants’ dedication to […]

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Basin Environmental Improvement Project Commission are celebrating decades of work to protect Silver Valley children from lead poisoning after the infamous 1973 Bunker Hill smelter baghouse fire, the worst lead poisoning event in U.S. history. The work has made the Silver Valley a much healthier place to live, work, and play. For the last 50 years EPA and its partners – Idaho Department of Environmental Quality, Coeur d’Alene Tribe, Panhandle Health District, and the Basin Commission -- have cleaned up countless abandoned mines, treated and re-forested hundreds of acres of metals-laden hillsides, and removed millions of tons of contaminated soil from over 7,000 residential and school yards, play areas, roads, streambeds, and mine sites. Over the last 50 years, average blood lead levels in children tested by Panhandle Health District have declined from about 67 to 2 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL), well below the Centers for Disease Control’s reference value of 3.5 (µg/dL). The work at the Bunker Hill Superfund Site is nowhere near complete but vast improvements have been made and should be celebrated. Background: Fire at the Bunker Hill Baghouse By September 3, 1973, when a fire disabled much of the main pollution control device on the Bunker Hill Mine’s lead smelter in Smelterville, Idaho, the “Silver Valley” had been grappling for almost 100 years with significant environmental and public health problems caused by the mining and processing of the region’s abundant metals. Some companies attempted to protect workers from debilitating illnesses that were cutting short their careers and their lives. In fact, in its 2005 report on cleanup of the Bunker Hill Superfund Site, the National Academies of Science noted that “By 1920, Bunker Hill management realized that their smelter could be causing some health risks for its employees and initiated an unproven electrolytic treatment for removing the lead from their bodies.” And for decades, Bunker Hill Mining Corporation -- the largest lead and zinc mine in the U.S. -- and other mining companies in the Silver Valley had been compensating downstream farmers for damage to crops and livestock. The mining companies also purchased “pollution easements” allowing them to discharge mine tailings directly into the South Fork of the Coeur d’Alene River and several of its tributaries. After the baghouse fire was extinguished, the mine’s owner, Gulf Resources, determined that the financial benefits of continuing to operate the crippled smelter were greater than the legal risks of spewing huge amounts of lead and other pollutants into the community. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry, a division within CDC, the smelter poured an average of 73 tons of lead each month into Smelterville and surrounding Kellogg neighborhoods from September 1973 until August 1974 when it was shut down. Unsurprisingly, a 1976 study conducted by the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare in the months following the fire found that 99 percent of Smelterville children had blood lead levels at or above the CDC’s level of concern at the time. These were among the highest blood levels ever recorded. Armed at the time with limited authorities, health and environmental agencies scrambled to stop dangerous waste and pollution management practices and simultaneously reduce kids’ exposures to lead soil and dust. The work had near immediate impacts: By 1981 only 19 percent of Smelterville children tested had blood lead levels that exceeded that era’s national average. Despite effective work combatting the acute crisis in Smelterville and Kellogg, annual flooding events, development, ongoing mine and smelting operations, and even mine closures continued to inject more pollution into communities throughout the Silver Valley, repeatedly exposing children to dangerous levels of lead. Of particular concern was the impact of acidic smelter emissions on the inability of the surrounding hillsides to grow vegetation after they’d been heavily logged to build the mines, towns, and railroads. The denuded unfertile hillsides had become little more than enormous deposits of metals-laden soil with nothing to keep it in place during the yearly spring floods that regularly inundated and contaminated downstream communities like Wallace and Kellogg. In 1983, EPA listed the Bunker Hill Mining and Metallurgical Complex as a Superfund site. Expanded in 2002, the BHSS includes environmental cleanup and restoration work in areas contaminated by mining waste in the Coeur d’Alene River Watershed totaling about 1,500 square miles. It is one of the largest Superfund sites in the nation. Armed with a spate of new environmental statutes, state and federal agencies took on the problem, removing wastes from countless abandoned mines, treating and re-foresting the denuded hillsides, and placing millions of tons of contaminated soil into repositories where it is securely stored and monitored. Previously acidic streams once devoid of life now host abundant fish populations and nurse the trees and shrubs that stabilize their banks and reduce dangerous flooding. Panhandle Health District’s Kellogg office has conducted free annual blood lead testing to help identify children with elevated blood lead levels and determine how they’re being exposed to lead. The EPA and the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality focus their cleanup efforts on properties with high lead levels that pose the greatest risk to children. So far, EPA has removed leaded soils from over 7,000 properties throughout the Silver Valley. Ultimately, the 1973 baghouse fire set in motion an enormous amount of work to mitigate the devastating impacts that mining and smelting had had on the environment and the health of the people in the Silver Valley and downstream communities. That work has protected generations of children from elevated blood lead levels and transformed much of the landscape that contributed to the public health risks confronted by the region’s residents. […]

WASHINGTON - Today, May 15, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a final rule to make annual drinking water quality reports more understandable and accessible to the public. These reports are an important tool that drinking water systems use to inform residents about water quality and any contaminants that have been found in the water. Starting in 2027, this final rule will ensure that these reports are easier to read and support access to translations in appropriate languages while enhancing information about lead in drinking water. EPA is also taking steps to streamline the delivery of reports by encouraging electronic methods. “EPA is taking action today to help ensure that the American public has improved access to information about the drinking water in their communities by strengthening requirements for annual drinking water quality reports,” said acting Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Water Bruno Pigott. “Today's announcement will ensure these reports are easier to understand, and easier to access in additional languages to provide all people with the information they want and need about their water.” The final rule will support public education by more clearly communicating important information in water quality reports and improving access to the reports. Water systems are currently required to provide annual drinking water reports to customers each year, and with this rule systems serving over 10,000 customers will be required to distribute reports twice per year. The final rule also introduces a new reporting requirement that will provide EPA with better information to make decisions on oversight, enforcement, regulatory revisions, and training and technical assistance. Today’s final rule will require states to submit compliance monitoring data they already receive from public water systems to EPA annually.  Learn more about EPA’s Revised Consumer Report Rule, including upcoming webinars and fact sheet that provides more detail on the new requirements. Background A Consumer Confidence Report, sometimes called a “Drinking Water Quality Report,” summarizes information about the local drinking water. As part of the America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, Congress instructed EPA to revise the Consumer Confidence Report Rule. Today’s final rule will support the goal of the Safe Drinking Water Act “right-to-know” provisions by improving the Consumer Confidence Reports so that people can make better decisions about their drinking water. EPA’s final rule will work to further that goal by making sure important information in annual reports are accurate and accessible. […]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is accepting public comment on its proposed plan to reduce the amount of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, in the Spokane River basin. PCBs in surface water readily accumulate in aquatic organisms, meaning even small amounts in the environment can pose health problems for people who consume fish. The agency’s plan establishes a Total Maximum Daily Load for PCBs-- often referred to as a pollution budget – to protect human health and aquatic life along the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers of Washington and highlights the need to continue to reduce PCBs from both industries and communities in the Spokane Valley. While PCBs were banned in 1979, they were widely used by multiple industries to lubricate and cool equipment and some of that equipment, like electrical transformers manufactured before the ban, are sources of the chemicals found in the 100 river miles of the Spokane River watershed.  For more information on how to comment on the draft plan, go to: https://www.epa.gov/tmdl/spokane-river-pcb-tmdls EPA will be issuing the final Spokane River TMDL for PCBs by September 30, 2024. […]

LENEXA, KAN. (MAY 15, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the court approval of a settlement agreement with 36 private parties and three federal agencies for payment of EPA’s past and future cleanup costs at the Missouri Electric Works Superfund Site in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. The settlement agreement is issued under the authority of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as Superfund. Under the terms of the settlement, the polluting private parties will pay $6,074,739 and the federal agencies, also responsible for pollution, will pay $600,798 to the United States to satisfy EPA’s past and future cleanup costs. Additionally, the private parties will pay $625,261 and the federal agencies will pay $61,839 to the state of Missouri in settlement of state response costs. The site is an approximately 6.4-acre parcel, located in Cape Girardeau, at which the former Missouri Electric Works Inc. sold, serviced, and remanufactured transformers and other equipment containing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Releases of PCBs and volatile organic compounds from the facility resulted in soil and groundwater contamination at the site. EPA has been overseeing investigation and cleanup at the site since the 1980s. EPA designated the property as a Superfund site in 1990. Under Superfund, EPA enforces the “polluter pays” principle, which holds responsible parties accountable for cleanup and reimbursement of EPA’s oversight costs throughout a contaminated site’s history. For more information, visit the Missouri Electric Works Superfund Site Profile page. Learn more about the Superfund program. # # # Learn more about EPA Region 7 View all Region 7 news releases Connect with EPA Region 7 on Facebook and Instagram Follow us on X: @EPARegion7 […]

West Henrietta, New York based Premier Packaging Corporation welcomes Ken Flansburg, Senior Manager of Client Services, to its team. Ken is a seasoned professional with over two decades of experience in the packaging industry. Currently serving as the Senior Manager of Client Services at Premier Packaging Corporation, he brings a wealth of expertise and leadership […]

The National Plastics Exposition mega-show held last week featured innovations across 1 million sq ft, many of which involved PET packaging for food and beverages. […]