Built in 1940, Smurfit Westrock, a paper mill in Covington, Virginia, has long been a backbone of the local economy, but now finds itself under national scrutiny.
According to a new report from the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Smurfit WestRock’s Covington plant emitted an estimated 2.5 million metric tons of greenhouse gases last year — nearly triple the amount officially reported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The EPA’s public database puts the plant’s 2023 emissions just under one million metric tons, already the highest of any paper mill in the United States. For comparison, the average reported emissions across the 185 major mills in the U.S. that year, was roughly 179,000 metric tons.
So, why the discrepancy?
The watchdog group, EIP, says it’s tied to a federal loophole that allows paper mills to exclude emissions from burning wood waste and other organic matter, known as “biogenic fuels.” These emissions don’t count in official tallies, although most contribute to climate change.
“They claimed because trees can be replanted,” said Tom Pelton, Director of Communications at the Environmental Integrity Project. “But in our opinion, that makes no sense. Because if you burn a tree, for example, it immediately releases a lot of pollution up into the air, carbon dioxide, for example. And if you plant a tree to replace it, which is what the paper industry says it does, that’s fine, but that tree is going to take decades to grow up to the size where it can absorb pollution to compensate for the tree you cut down.”
In a statement to 10 News, Smurfit Westrock defended its reporting practices, saying: “Contrary to the statements in EIP’s report, the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s mandatory greenhouse gas reporting rules require U.S. paper mills to submit total tons of biogenic and fossil fuel CO2 emissions to the agency. These reports are publicly available on USEPA’s website, and accurately depict emissions measured at the Covington mill.”
Pelton argues businesses should use profits to invest in a healthier America.
“We all need paper. I use paper every single day,” Pelton said. “But we just want to make sure that when clean paper is produced, that the way of producing it is also clean. We hope companies like Smurfit WestRock, which is based in Ireland, invests their systems at their own plant here in the U.S. We want the paper industry to continue and these jobs to stay in place. But we think the best way to do that is for these companies not to neglect their plants with 1940s-era equipment."
EIP says it hopes its “A Paper Trail of Pollution” report sparks long-overdue equipment upgrades that move the paper industry towards more sustainable practices.