Weyerhaeuser cutting back on recycling infrastructure

After an aggressive move to acquire sorting facilities around the country over the last two years, Weyerhaeuser recently announced that it is restructuring its recycling business. "Recycling remains a core business, but we must make some adjustments to our nationwide system to meet the needs of internal and external customers in an increasingly competitive marketplace. This will require us to close, consolidate or dispose of selected recycling assets," according to John W. Creighton, Jr., president and chief executive officer of Weyerhaeuser.

Weyerhaeuser Company is one of the largest integrated forest products companies in the world. Its principal segments are timberlands and wood products; pulp, paper and packaging; and real estate. It is also one of North America's largest producers of forest products and recyclers of mixed paper, newspaper and corrugated boxes.

Because of its rapid expansion in recycling, the company now has about 40 sorting facilities in the U.S. The drop in paper prices, along with the fact that some of its acquisitions caused it to have excess capacity in some markets, have prompted Weyerhaeuser to reexamine the need for all of those facilities.