Sonoco Goes Landfill Free in Tulsa - Packaging Impressions

Sonoco, one of the largest diversified packaging companies, has named its Tulsa, OK, Tubes and Cores plant a gold-level Sonoco Sustainability Star Award recipient for the plant's successful efforts to achieve landfill free status.

While recycling had been a plant priority for some time, its staff wanted to take it completely landfill free. In 2014, they identified an opportunity to divert non-recyclable coated tube scrap to a sourcing company and initiated a recovery program. Administered by Sonoco Recycling, the company's recycling business, the Sonoco Sustainability Star Awards program is comprised of 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 a new composting system.

A recycling leader with locations and expertise worldwide, Sonoco Recycling annually collects more than 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. Currently, Sonoco Recycling operates five material recovery facilities (MRFs) serving more than 125 communities in which curbside-collected residential and commercial materials are processed. The company also operates recycling programs, which identify waste reduction opportunities that reduce operating expenses for many of the largest consumer product companies in the United States.

"In addition to recovering this coated tube scrap, which is difficult to manage, this program also reduced overall facility costs," said Lynn Ratliff, plant manager. "It was truly a win-win."