Mayor Bloomberg and Pratt open expanded paper recycling plant

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Pratt Industries CEO and chairman Anthony Pratt recently opened the expanded Pratt paper recycling mill. The new facility contains a material recovery facility, where paper and plastic recyclables can be processed, and a corrugated box factory, where recycled paper can be converted into corrugated boxes. Before today's opening, Pratt Industries had to ship materials from the existing paper recycling mill to other Pratt plants for converting into boxes. This plant contributes to the achieving the PlaNYC goal of reducing citywide carbon emissions 30% by 2030. The mayor and Pratt were joined by Staten Island borough president James Molinaro, city council sanitation and solid waste management committee chair Mike McMahon, sanitation commissioner John Doherty and Economic development Corp. president Seth Pinsky. "This expansion advances two goals that are essential to our City's future: creating new jobs and promoting environmental sustainability, which in today's economy go hand-in-hand," said mayor Bloomberg. "The recycling that happens here is also a vital part of the city's Solid Waste Management Plan: this plant recycles approximately 1,100 tons of waste paper and old corrugated containers every day-preventing the release of 1,200 tons of carbon emissions and saving the equivalent of 17,000 trees." Pratt Industries invested $20 million in the expansion, bringing total private investment in the site up to more than $330 million over the last decade. The mill employs 240 people, and the expansion has created 100 new full-time jobs to the area. Each year, the plant processes 200,000 tons of waste paper collected from residential sources in the city, more than half of which is delivered to the facility by barge. The finished product leaves the plant by rail. The city has added a mile-long rail spur along the borough's western shore that connects the mill to the Staten Island Railroad, helping achieve greenhouse gas reductions outlined in PlaNYC as well as reducing traffic congestion and pollution. The N.Y.C. Industrial Development Agency issued $120 million in tax-exempt bonds when the mill first opened.