Sonoco, Hartsville, S.C., USA, one of the largest diversified packaging companies, has awarded a Sonoco Sustainability Star Award to its Alpha facility in Beavercreek, Ohio, for driving landfill reduction through improved waste stream management.

The Alpha plant implemented a plan to divert from waste streams skiver dust, a byproduct of the paperboard container manufacturing process. Skiver dust is created when cans are cut, similar to sawdust. The plant began diverting this waste to a local solidification partner at the beginning of the year, and has been diverting 40 tons of skiver dust per month from landfills since March 2016.

"The Alpha plant has found a creative way to significantly reduce our waste to landfill at that facility, while also reducing costs to the company," said Mike Pope, GM and president, Sonoco Recycling. "Their work is a great example of how to find solutions with multiple benefits to the company and the community—environmental, financial, and operational."

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 four material recovery facilities (MRFs) serving more than 125 communities in which curbside-collected residential as well as 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 net sales of approximately $5 billion, the company has 20,000 employees working in more than 300 operations in 35 countries, serving some of the world's best known brands in some 85 nations.