LC Paper invests 5 million, with the support of ICF and Bankinter, to improve the paper recycling process in the face of changes in consumption patterns

The Catalan Institute of Finance and Bankinter finance the Girona company with a loan of 2.3 million euros to acquire state-of-the-art industrial machinery and renovate its plant in Besalú/Beuda. The investment will allow the paper manufacturer to reuse difficult-to-process materials such as cardboard boxes from online orders, an increasingly common waste.

The Girona-based company LC Paper has promoted an investment of almost 5 million euros to improve the paper recycling process at its Besalú/Beuda complex with the aim of reusing difficult-to-process materials such as cardboard boxes, an increasingly frequent waste product resulting from the growth of online shopping.

The Catalan Institute of Finance (ICF) and Bankinter have financed the project in equal parts with a loan of 2.3 million euros, thanks to which LC Paper has acquired state-of-the-art industrial machinery with a high degree of automation and digitalization, completely updating its recycled fibre processing section in La Garrotxa.

LC Paper manufactures paper from wood from managed forests, but also from the recycling of other paper and cardboard materials. Historically, the paper industry had focused on reusing printing formats, such as company documentation, notebooks or newspapers, among other examples.

However, as a result of the digitalization process, this type of waste has decreased significantly while new materials associated with e-commerce have appeared, which is a challenge for the paper industry.

"Recycling a cardboard box with recycling errors and metal and plastic objects is much more complicated than recycling printed documentation. The investment we have promoted will allow us to increase the percentage of products made from recycled materials while reusing waste that would not otherwise be reused because many other manufacturers do not have the necessary selection technology," explained Pau Vila, CEO of LC Paper.

"Thanks to the new machinery, we will be able to obtain a paper pulp of high purity and quality in the final product from low-performance raw material, since we will have the capacity to differentiate and segregate elements that are not paper and that end up entering the recycling circuit by mistake or omission of the end user, but also the elements that are difficult to separate," he added.

Vila explained that "maintaining quality is especially important when we talk about formats such as toilet paper, where the consumer demands softness and thickness, or paper for bags, where the customer wants high resistance so that it does not break".

The investment, which is expected to come into operation in the second quarter of 2025, has also received a grant from the Next Generation funds of approximately two million euros to promote industrial circularity and the improvement of sustainability.

A leading sustainability company with 143 years of history

LC Paper is a family business founded in 1881 headed by the fifth generation. The company has three production centres in Comarques Gironines: the main plant in Besalú/Beuda, dedicated to the manufacture of paper, and two paper handling centres in Sarrià de Ter and Fornells de la Selva.

In total, it has nearly 150 professionals in Catalonia. With a consolidated turnover of €55 million (2023), the company exports approximately half of its production to 28 countries on four different continents.

Since the mid-nineties, it has made a commitment to sustainability with investments in the field of energy decarbonisation, the reduction of water consumption and the elimination of plastic packaging, betting on recycled and biodegradable formats. For all these reasons, it has been the first paper manufacturer in the world to be recognized with the prestigious "B Corp" seal of excellence in ESG.