MOSCOW (MRC) -- Packaging company Sonoco has expanded the post-consumer recovery and recycling possibilities for its EnviroCan paper containers in the US, said Packaging-gataway.
The announcement comes after Sonoco confirmed that all its US paper mills will accept rigid paper cans in mixed paper bales from residential Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs). Sonoco operates ten mills in various states including Wisconsin, Tennessee, California, South Carolina, Massachusetts, Virginia, Washington and Kansas.
The mills will use this mixed paper to manufacture 100% paperboard, with up to 85% post-consumer fibre. Sonoco sustainability staff vice-president Elizabeth Rhue said: “Sonoco is uniquely positioned as a leading recycler, paper mill operator and paper packaging converter to help grow end of life solutions across not only our consumer and industrial packaging platforms but across the paper industry.
“After validating that our mills could recycle EnviroCan factory scrap, we are now taking the lead to further demonstrate the ability to recycle our paper containers with metal ends not only through the steel stream, as it is largely done today, but also through the post-consumer mixed paper stream.” This collaboration highlights Sonoco’s capability for recycling and processing fibre-based packaging through conventional paper mill pulping systems.
It also aligns with the company’s commitment to responsible material sourcing and supporting material circularity.
Rhue added: “If a consumer recycles an EnviroCan paper container and it is sorted into the mixed paper stream, the cans can now be sent to our mills to be turned into a number of new fibre products, including new EnviroCan containers.”
In September, Sonoco partnered with technology start-up AMP Robotics to make spiral wound paper canisters with steel bottoms more widely recyclable. Last week, the company reported USD1.42bn net sales for the third quarter of 2021, up 7.8% from last year period. It attributed the increase to improvement in volume/mix and higher selling prices.
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,868,160 tonnes in the first nine months of 2021, up by 18% year on year. Shipments of all grades of ethylene polymers increased. At the same time, PP shipments to the Russian market were 1,138,510 tonnes in January-September 2021, up by 30% year on year. Supply of propylene homopolymer (homopolymer PP) and block-copolymers of propylene (PP block copolymers) increased, whereas supply of injection moulding statistical copolymers of propylene (PP random copolymers) decreased significantly.
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 USD5 billion, the Company has 21,000 employees working in more than 300 operations in 33 countries, serving some of the world’s best known brands in some 85 nations. With a purpose focused on Better Packaging. Better Life., Sonoco ranked first in the Packaging sector on Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies 2018 list.
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