Small City. Big Heart. Global Influence.

You probably don’t expect world-changing technology to originate from a small city in the Appalachian Mountains–but it does. Both Eastman and Domtar are heavily investing in the circular economy. What’s a ‘circular economy’? Recycling. In this case, plastics and containerboard. Just this week, Eastman welcomed the President of Normandy (France) to their headquarters in Kingsport for a tour of their plastics recycling facility that is currently under construction on Jared Drive. Why? Because they are investing in a similar European recycling facility in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron and Eastman CEO Mark Costa jointly announced Eastman’s plan to invest up to $1 billion in a material-to-material molecular recycling facility in France that would use Eastman’s polyester renewal technology to recycle up to 160,000 tonnes annually of hard-to-recycle plastic waste that is currently being incinerated. Photo: Eliot Blondet/Abacapress.com

And what about the steady stream of packages that are delivered to our doorsteps these days? E-commerce has forever changed the way people shop, and now recycled containerboard will change the way products are delivered. Online retail sales have grown 24 percent in the United States compared to a year ago. All those empty boxes have to go somewhere. According to Steve Henry, vice president of Domtar’s newly formed packaging business, 31.8 million tons of them have been recycled in the last 12 months alone. This is where the conversion of the Kingsport Mill comes in.

And on another level, both Eastman and Domtar are recycling their Kingsport plant sites, too. They could’ve chosen to build a new facility in a green field somewhere, but instead they chose to invest in their existing plant sites in a community that understands and appreciates their innovation and vision.

Well done, Eastman & Domtar. That’s the Kingsport Spirit!