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Cascades Sonoco and Sonoco CorrFlex Facilities Recognized with Sonoco Sustainability Star Award

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  Published in House and Home on Monday, October 24th 2011 at 6:26 GMT by Market Wire
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HARTSVILLE, S.C.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Sonoco (NYSE: SON), one of the largest diversified global packaging companies and packaging recyclers in North America, today announced that its Birmingham, Ala., Cascades Sonoco and York, Pa., Sonoco CorrFlex facilities have achieved landfill-free status and have been awarded a Gold Tier Sonoco Sustainability Star Award. Working with Sonoco Recycling, the Birmingham Cascades Sonoco facility became landfill-free in June of 2011, and the York CorrFlex facility went landfill-free in October.

"One of our biggest challenges was food waste. Currently, weare composting, and have plans to install disposals in our sinks to better help us handle food."

To achieve its Sonoco Sustainability Star Gold Tier landfill-free status, Sonoco requires 99 percent of all waste to be diverted from landfills. Sonoco CorrFlex and Cascades Sonoco met this requirement by taking their facilities completely landfill-free.

The Cascades Sonoco plant is currently diverting all of its waste through a combination of recycling, the use of waste-to-energy alternatives and composting.

aOur initial goal was simply to reduce the waste we were landfilling as much as possible, without increasing our disposal costs,a said Emmanuel Boullay, plant manager. aOnce we began, however, we kept looking for ways to do more until we were landfill-free.a

Brian Roach, Sonoco Recycling representative for the Cascades Sonoco plant, said, aOne of our biggest challenges was food waste. Currently, weare composting, and have plans to install disposals in our sinks to better help us handle food.a

The York CorrFlex facility achieved landfill-free status through a combination of waste-to-energy (WTE) landfill diversion and a comprehensive recycling program.

aWe were able to divert two landfill waste streams, ink printing cake waste and general plant waste, to WTE,a said Randy Bergman, plant manager for the Sonoco CorrFlex facility.

Bergman noted that WTE incineration is recognized by CorrFlexas major customers as an acceptable landfill diversion.

Sonoco Recycling is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonoco and one of the largest recyclers in the United States. Globally, the Company annually collects more than three 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 20 dedicated recycling facilities within the U.S., three of which are material recovery facilities (MRFs) serving more than 125 communities in which curbside collected residential and commercial materials are processed. The Company also provides recycling programs for many of the largest consumer product companies in the U.S.

To learn more about the Sonoco Sustainability Star Award program, visit [ http://www.sonoco.com/productsservices/sonocorecyclinginc/sustainabilitystarawards.aspx ].

About Sonoco

Founded in 1899, Sonoco is a $4.1 billion global manufacturer of industrial and consumer products and provider of packaging services, with more than 300 operations in 34 countries, serving customers in some 85 nations. Sonoco is a proud member of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. For more information on the Company, visit our website at [ http://www.sonoco.com/ ].