As the sun set over Canton on Feb. 11, the scene at the town’s makeshift municipal building more closely resembled that of a trendy big-city nightclub. More than 100 people had lined up outside, hoping to join the other 49 people who’d pushed the modular double-wide’s fire code to its absolute limit by making it inside. Their minds weren’t focused on drinks or dancing, but instead on data — Big Data, and its effect on small towns. 

When Eric Spirtas and Two Banks Development LLC bought the dormant Canton mill property in early January from global corporate supervillain Pactiv Evergreen, the reaction across town was equal parts relief and side-eye.

Relief, because communities across the country have seen too many hulking industrial sites sit shuttered for a decade or more, rotting quietly into the ground while communities wait for a miracle that never comes. 

When the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill in Canton closed after more than a century of operations in June 2023, the shockwaves went far beyond the hundreds of workers who lost their jobs.

After losing roughly $200 million in valuation due to the closing of the Pactiv Evergreen paper mill and the damage wrought by Hurricane Helene, Haywood County Commissioners will entertain a 2025-26 budget that’s thin as can be. 

Updated Feb. 18

early $6 million in taxpayer money will be coming back to Haywood County after Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Gov. Josh Stein announced that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit alleging that Pactiv Evergreen had violated the terms of a decade-old economic development grant agreement when it closed its Canton paper mill in 2023.

Following up on a campaign promise he made just over a year ago, newly-elected North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson stood within eyeshot of what used to be Pactiv Evergreen’s Canton paper mill to remind the company that he wasn’t going to ease up on a lawsuit filed by his predecessor, now-Gov. Josh Stein.

According to a press release issued Dec. 9, a merger between Pactiv Evergreen and Charlotte-based Novolex will provide better customer service, increased product innovation and additional distribution capabilities across North America, but what the merger means for Pactiv’s lawsuits, its languishing 185-acre parcel in Canton and the future of the town’s wastewater treatment, isn’t yet clear. 

Hurricane Helene has dealt serious damage to Pactiv Evergreen’s shuttered Canton paper mill, but the St. Louis-based demolition and development company owner trying to buy the 185-acre parcel remains undeterred. 

Hurricane Helene has dealt serious damage to Pactiv Evergreen’s shuttered Canton paper mill, but the St. Louis-based demolition and development company owner trying to buy the 185-acre parcel remains undeterred.

Pactiv Evergreen has filed a request with the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to make “major” modifications to the discharge permit for its wastewater treatment facility in Canton.