Mill26 is Making 100% Hemp Paper in Upstate New York
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Hemp Podcast guest James \u201cJimmy\u201d Cottrell II is a fourth-generation paper maker at family-owned Cottrell Paper in Saratoga County, New York.
He started cutting the grass in high school and began working at the mill after graduation, and has worked his way up.
Today he is director of maintenance for the mill and vice president of Mill26, Cottrell Paper\u2019s hemp paper brand.
The company was founded in 1926 when Cottrell\u2019s great-grandfather began making electrical insulation paper.
\u201cWe\u2019ve always produced electrical insulating sheet,\u201d Cottrell said. \u201cIt\u2019s a specialty product, and nobody else in the world makes exactly the same sheet we make.\u201d
Cottrell Paper\u2019s products are in numerous consumer goods
\u201cWe\u2019re in cars. We\u2019re in automotive. We\u2019re in a lot of things that are in your household items, your dishwashers, little parts and pieces everywhere,\u201d Cottrell said. \u201cBut we\u2019ve never actually sold to a consumer where people know who Cottrell Paper is.\u201d
The company operates in the same paper mill in Rock City Falls, along the Kayaderosseras Creek, where 19th-century industrialist and the so-called \u201cPaper Bag King\u201d George West is said to have invented the paper bag, a story in which Cottrell finds inspiration.
\u201cSo to come full circle now 150 years later, to invent a hemp sheet and build another paper bag in this mill...,\u201d Cottrell said. \u201cI feel that\u2019s a threat to the paper bag itself, because we got something new in the same old place.\u201d
Mill26 Hemp Paper
During the days of COVID when the world slowed to a snail\u2019s pace, Cottrell put the time to good use.
\u201cWe ventured into trying to make a new line,\u201d he said. \u201cWe got a little slow, like everybody did, and started getting some stalks and stems in, and we started processing some hemp.\u201d
At first he bought hemp out of Canada and the Netherlands, but has lately been sourcing material from Texas.
\u201cThe United States is catching up, and we\u2019re just a little bit behind, you know, overseas everywhere,\u201d he said.
He said he wants clean bast fiber at a 95:5 ratio of bast to hurd. The bast fibers are the long strands that make up the outer portion of the stalk and the hurd is the inner woody core, often used for hempcrete construction and horse bedding.
\u201cEverybody has their own classification right now of what 95 five is,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we really need the cleanest bast fibers around to make the best papers that we can make here at Mill 26.\u201d
Cottrell Paper decided to brand their hemp paper line independently as Mill26 to attract new costumers and to avoid any negative association with marijuana.
Cottrell said his warehouse is full and he is ready for business.
\u201cWe can sell rolls, we can sell sheets, we can sell coils. We can sell paper bags from size two to size 12. We can print your logo on it up to four colors,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can buy a thousand quantities all the way up to million quality bags.\u201d
The implications of Mill26 hemp paper are wide. A durable, tree-free paper has the potential to disrupt many industries and usher in a new era of regenerative consumer packaging (and maybe the newspapers).
\u201cI really feel that it can help change so many industries and then help change this planet and the ecological footprint and our carbon footprint here at Cottrell Paper itself,\u201d Cottrell said.
Mill26 Hemp Paper
https://mill26.com/
Cottrell Paper
https://www.cottrellpaper.com/
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