The company’s absolute landfill total rose 12.54 percent from 149,826 metric tons in 2010 to 168,611 metric tons in 2011.
In 2011, Sonoco Recycling started the Sustainability Star Award program to recognize customer- and Sonoco-owned facilities that have achieved significant milestones in waste stream reduction through recycling and other landfill mitigation efforts. A total of 12 plants received gold and silver awards for diverting up to 99 percent of those facilities’ waste streams from landfills.
The company also met its goal in 2011 of having five of its US manufacturing plants achieve Star Award status by diverting at least 95 percent of their waste streams from landfill disposal through improved recycling efforts. Three of those five plants – those in Birmingham, Ala., York, Penn., and West Chicago, Ill., – diverted 99 percent of their waste from landfill.
Normalized water usage at Sonoco’s global manufacturing operations has been reduced 7.2 percent since 2009, including a 5.1 percent reduction in 2011, the report says. From 2010 to 2011 the company reduced its normalized water use from 6.799 to 6.455 cubic meters per ton of production, the report says. In that time the company’s absolute water consumption dropped 1.84 percent.
Last year the company launched a peanut jar for firm Planters that weighs 84 percent less than its predecessor. The new packaging replaced Planters’ 16 oz. and 20 oz. glass peanut jars. It is made of 100 percent recyclable, BPA-free plastic and requires 25 percent fewer trucks for transportation than the old jars.
