Sept. 28, 2007 Sonoco, one of the world's largest packaging companies, has launched a new service to help manufacturers identify ways to convert waste streams to revenue streams by finding alternative uses for facilities' previously unrecycled wastes.

Sonoco Sustainability Solutions (S3) is a new service of Sonoco Recycling, one of the largest recyclers in the packaging industry.

S3 was originally developed and piloted at 12 Sonoco plants to improve productivity by reducing waste materials going to landfills, said Jack Sanders, senior vice president of Sonoco. However, once we identified the many benefits of the program, we began partnering with some of our customers locations and found that the service could provide significant productivity savings along with new revenue sources and environmental benefits.

Through S3, Sonoco reviews a facility's existing program for handling wastes and develops tailored programs for improvement. The service can also provide incremental income as a locations unrecycled waste streams are converted into revenue streams through the sale of previously landfilled materials and finding alternate uses for certain wastes, the company says. The service provides reporting of productivity improvements both in terms of financial savings and environmental benefits.

Most manufacturing plants, distribution centers, and retailers have active recycling programs, but they still have wastes going to landfills," says Myles Cohen, division vice president and general manager at Sonoco Recycling. "Because of our extensive knowledge of the industrial and consumer packaging industry and our expertise in recycling, we have been able to find alternative recycling initiatives for wastes that were previously thought to be unrecyclable, such as plastic banding, bulk plastic liners and sacks, flexible packaging, and other materials.

The goal of S3 is to have zero landfill wastes coming from our customers facilities, Cohen adds.

Sonoco Recycling collects and processes recyclable materials at 46 locations in North America and Europe.