Concerning Get over it and get with it

Jim,

I couldn't agree with you more!

It reminded me of [withheld] telling me (when we were looking at the death of the [withheld] mill) that on the day a new mill starts, it begins its journey to its shutdown. Seems to me that if mill designers (the engineers and managers; not the accountants) would right up front specify the expected life of what they are building life would probably be simpler. People, cars, houses, boats, computers, even roads and bridges are not expected to last forever. And since the 60's and 70's we've proved that car plants and steel mills certainly don't. Just seems incredulous that paper mill gurus would expect something different from their concrete and steel. The same goes with personnel functions in those mills.

I wonder how many of our refineries would still be in business if they continued to make low-octane, leaded gasoline and high sulfur diesel?

Regarding communications; again you're on-target. With the issues that Glenda and I are currently facing, the web has provided more education and info than I could have imagined, which has allowed us to be better equipped to handle what we're facing. The web's communication modes allows us to stay in contact with a lot of well-wishers as well as care-givers in ways that we simply could not do without it. And we both realize that we are neophytes in using the web's power.

Keep hammerin', Jim. Some folks are listening. Sooner or later, someone with the power to influence will hear and decide to get on board...I hope.

Ed Turner
Houston, Texas, USA

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Note: for those of you that know Ed, I don't think he will mind me letting you know both he and his wife Glenda are fighting cancer this winter, a subject near and dear to my heart.

Jim

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Thomas Alva Edison invented the alkaline storage battery. While I still bemoan the fact I can't get paper grocery bags from every store, (I like them better for bundling and recycling our paper throwaways), two 'natural food and/or organic coops' I use provide nothing less than paper bags at checkout. Of course they also provide plastic containers w/lids for olives, peanut butter, etc. and plastic bags at the fruit and vegetable produce stands.

John Yolton
Eureka, California, USA

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Jim:

Thinking about this week's cover article, my optimistic nature makes me believe we haven't lost the industry wars to foreign competition, just the last bunch of battles. But to win the war, we need to change the prevalent attitude that things will (somehow, mysteriously) get better and return to the way it used to be. It won't. Our industry is changed forever.

But we can win the war using good, old, Yankee ingenuity. We need two things:

1) Innovation in developing new products.
2) Innovation in developing new, or improving old, technology.

You might say this is only one thing: innovation. But the first leads to top-line expansion via increased sales and value-added products. The second leads to bottom line expansion via vastly improved levels of efficiency and productivity. Then we can compete effectively with our third-world competitors.

We must recognize that we can't cost-save ourselves into competitiveness. That leads to a death spiral. Only by preserving or expanding our R&D funding can we hope to nurture the innovation we desperately need to save our industry.

Thanks for the soapbox,

Bob Makolin
Wisconsin, USA

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More on "sustainability"

Jim,

The German word for "sustainability" goes back to 1713 when it was used for a way of forest management. The English term got its current meaning mainly through Gro Harlem Brundtland's World Commission for Environment and Development.

In Europe from the paper mills' view we also discuss an aspect that seems uncommon in the US: Many printer manufacturers claim their machine to be "green" if they use recycled plastic for the hood or if this piece is recyclable. As paper recyclers, we see another point that is often ignored -- the prints have to be recyclable. Some newer technologies have difficulties in this aspect. The inks currently used for flexo printing ofr newspapers are not recyclable -- even in small amounts they create problems in the mill. The same is true for some uv inks, for liquid toners and inkjet inks. So this is why we do not want high volumes like direct mail or inkjet being printed by inkjet.

Best regards from sunny but cold Munich

Axel Fischer
Munich, Germany

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Welcome back

Dear Jim,

Nowadays when I receive the TAPPI Newsletters, I usually delete without reading. That wasn't the case when you were contributing - I'd open the email, hit 'End' and get to the most juicy, interesting email text I was likely to read that week. Many of your tales stick with me to this day, several years after reading them e.g. the how to approach the company Christmas party, honesty and ethics (the maintenance supervisor who looked at his pager, saw the number and ignored it while he responded immediately to another more important person's page) etc etc.

So, may I ask, are you still writing these gems? If so, how can I get them?

Very best regards,

Brendan MacGrath
Paris, France

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I am sure TAPPI's newsletters are still of high quality without my two cents worth, but thanks for finding us. You are on the list.

Jim

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