Sonoco Recycling, LLC, a unit of Sonoco, has invested $4 million in its Columbia, S.C., materials recovery facility (MRF), allowing the facility to accept additional types of materials. Because of this, Richland County residents will now be able to recycle more of their household materials such as composite cans, glass, magazines and other types of plastics.
Sonoco Recycling has added three sorting screens for corrugated cardboard and paper sorting, an optical sorter to retrieve plastic, and a new glass crusher that allows the facility to collect whole and broken glass bottles, jugs and jars.
"Sonoco has always prided itself on 'closing the loop,'" said Ray Howard, general manager, Sonoco Recycling. "We use recycled materials in our products, which are then recycled by the consumer and come back to us for processing. With this upgrade, we're now able to recycle even more of the packaging produced by Sonoco, in addition to the other items we collect that aren't produced by us."
Derek Trader, division marketing manager, Global Rigid Paper and Closures, agreed, "Sonoco is one of the largest providers of composite can packaging in the world for products such as coffee or Pringles® potato crisps. The ability to both produce and recycle this item is exciting for us and further demonstrates the Company's commitment to sustainable business practices."
New items accepted:
- Composite cans – cardboard containers with metal bottoms, such as coffee or Pringles containers
- Paper – office paper, junk mail, magazines, chipboard, wet-pack boxes and gable-top cartons
- Plastics – most plastics #1-7, including plastic bottles, jugs, jars and containers like yogurt cups and margarine tubes, milk crates, curbside recycling bins and carts, laundry baskets, plastic lawn furniture and toys, and five-gallon buckets
- Glass – whole and broken glass bottles, jugs and jars
The facility is still unable to accept tissue paper, paper plates and cups, waxed cardboard, plastic bags and films, containers that have held toxic substances, metal lids on glass or plastic items, glass cups or plates, window glass or ceramics.
A recycling leader with 50 locations and expertise worldwide, Sonoco Recycling annually collects approximately 3 million tons of old corrugated containers, various grades of paper, metals and plastics. In addition, the Company has experts who provide secure, reliable and innovative recycling solutions to residential and commercial customers.
Sonoco Recycling currently operates six material recovery facilities (MRFs) and serves nearly 150 communities in which curbside-collected residential and commercial materials are processed. The Company also provides recycling programs which identify waste reduction opportunities that reduce operating expenses for many of the largest consumer product companies in the U.S.