MAINE PUBLIC • April 13, 2022
Starting in the 19th century and lasting into the 21st, paper mills around Maine took in tons of low-quality pulpwood every day, churning out cellulose, newsprint and other stock for the country's vibrant periodicals industry. But with rise of digital content and global trade, and the explosion of a pulp digester in Jay two years ago, Maine's pulpwood markets collapsed. GO Lab is retrofitting the old Madison Mill to process low-quality byproducts of the state's lumber industry — softwood sawmill chips and timber-harvest detritus that right now are hard to sell. They'll turn it into wood-fiber insulation, called Timber HP. Some 230 million tons worth a year.