Marc E. Elias
This is nuts.👇
Supply chain issues could lead to shortages in paper used for everything from ballots to “I voted” stickers for years to come.
Commenter
Kim Palismo
Due to paper mills closing & others converting to make packaging instead of fine papers during pandemic, there's a paper shortage. Worst I've seen in my 38 yrs in print industry. What took 2 weeks now takes 4 - 12 depending on the product.
The two major things responsible for this, are consolidation in the industry, and offshoring production.... been going on for years and years. Sound familiar?
Many fine paper, used for high end reproduction, doesn't even exist today.
@corlin There was a post under that that read, "Don't you see? It was capitalism all along?"
All diversity suffers for it.
Yep.
Financialization hit the paper industry very hard. In the gogo 80s America went from having approximately 1,500 papermills, down to about 45 in 10 years. Now we have three conglomerate that own all the paper mills.
All Thanks to Wall Street hedge funds.
To chime in here: A lot of paper companies were also timberland and lumber companies. They've merged into a couple holdings firms, or completely restrategized due to market impacts. Over time, some (larger) timber companies restrategized to real estate. St Joe Paper Company here in FL is an example. They're now St Joe Land Company. Holding the timberland for "conservation" is a better investment for them until the real estate became enticing to developers.
@agitated_trash oh, the tangled web we weave. So many fingers in the pie. Conservation. *scoffs