The packaging firm Sonoco, headquartered in Hartsville, South Carolina, has named its Newport, Tennessee, paper mill a Sonoco Sustainability Bronze Star Award recipient in light of the facility's efforts to significantly decrease landfill disposal of waste from the plant.
In late 2012, Sonoco’s Newport facility partnered with local recycling company TLR Solutions to process some of the more difficult-to-recycle byproducts coming out of the mill, such as baling wire, glass, staples and ceramics, which are removed from incoming recovered fiber shipments.
“After the company announced its goal of making 10 percent of its facilities landfill free, we began efforts to eliminate the facility’s waste streams,” says Marty Pignone, vice president, Sonoco Paper North America. “The Newport paper mill has made significant advances—recycling almost 20 percent of waste that previously went to landfill each month—and we look forward to continuing those efforts.”
Sonoco says many of the items collected by TLR Solutions for processing require specific equipment. The recycling company not only found nearby locations with equipment capable of handling the materials but also worked with those locations for more than one year to identify the correct processes for recycling, many of which were some of the first of their kind in North America.
The Sonoco Sustainability Star Awards program, administered by Sonoco Recycling, comprises three tiers:
- Gold recognizes facilities that have achieved 99 percent landfill diversion.
- Silver is awarded to facilities achieving 95 percent landfill diversion.
- Bronze recognizes facilities that have made significant waste reduction achievements, such as drastically reducing their waste streams or implementing new composting systems.