Dive Summary:
- Canadian based, Catalyst Paper Company, has announced that it will close the Snowflake, Arizona recycling plant on September 30th due to lagging profit
- The recycling plant is one of the largest employers in the region. With the closing, 308 employees will be out of work.
- One ray of hope remains for the workers. Najafi Cos, a local investment company, is in discussion with the paper company to purchase the mill and maintain operations. Najafi Cos. owns the biomass power plant next door and uses waste product from the recycling plant for fuel
From the article:
Owners of the paper-recycling mill in Snowflake plan to close the facility in Sept. 30, putting 300 people out of work, but Phoenix investors could purchase it to keep the mill and the neighboring biomass power plant running.
The mill's closing would leave its 308 salaried and hourly employees without work in Navajo County in northeastern Arizona, which had a reported 14.5 percent unemployment rate for June.
"We anticipate that at least half of those employees live in the Snowflake-Taylor area," Snowflake town manager Paul Watson said. "It's devastating the fact that we all of a sudden within two months are going to have that many employees out of work."
Canadian company Catalyst Paper Corp. said it will shutter the Snowflake mill because of lagging profit.
