Sonoco Conyers Packaging Plant Receives Gold Star Sustainability Award

Sonoco, Hartsville, S.C., USA, has named the company's Conyers, Ga., protective packaging facility a gold Sonoco Sustainability Star Award recipient for the plant's successful efforts to achieve landfill free status. Conyers is the first protective solutions facility to achieve gold status.

The award marks the completion in landfill-free efforts that began in August 2014. Since implementation, Conyers has diverted all of its waste to the landfill by recycling and converting 60 tons of waste per month to energy.

"Our Conyers facility continues to grow with significant volume and has become a very complex operation with a wide variety of products and processes," said David Vasquez, plant manager. "Through the cooperation of various departments and the leadership of Brian Strong, senior procurement coordinator, the Conyers team has reached this milestone. I am very proud of our team for going above and beyond to pull this important initiative together. Achieving landfill-free status in the Atlanta area is quite an accomplishment."

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% landfill diversion
Silver is awarded to facilities achieving 95% 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.

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 U.S.

Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a global provider of a variety of consumer packaging, industrial products, protective packaging, and displays and packaging supply chain services. With annualized combined sales of approximately $5.4 billion, the company has more than 21,000 employees working in more than 340 operations in 34 countries, serving some of the world's best known brands in some 85 nations. Sonoco is a member of the 2014/2015 Dow Jones Sustainability World Index.