Sonoco has awarded a gold-level Sonoco Sustainability Star Award to Interbake Foods of Front Royal, Va., a subsidiary of Weston Foods of Canada, for achieving zero waste to landfill status. Sonoco Recycling worked with Interbake on a new recycling program designed to maximize rebate, reduce costs and streamline recycling collection. Solid waste recycling was optimized through methods that made collection and processing more efficient, then supplemented with a waste-to-energy program that ultimately resulted in a landfill-free operation. “Interbake really worked smart as well as hard to achieve landfill-free status,” said Mike Pope, general manager and president, Sonoco Recycling. “They took a close look at their operations and found ways to increase efficiencies as well as rebates. Their program provides a great example how recycling isn’t just the right thing to do – it can be the best business decision as well.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Atlantic Packaging is proud to announce that they have joined the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (the Alliance), a non-profit organization committed to ending plastic waste in the environment. In their capacity as an Alliance member, Atlantic will be collaborating with over 80 member companies, project partners, allies and supporters around the world to address this global issue. The Alliance’s mission is to develop, accelerate and deploy innovative and impactful solutions, engage communities around the world, and to catalyze investments.

Cascades Inc. announced a $21-million investment in its Cascades Inopak (Drummondville) and Plastiques Cascades (Kingsey Falls) plants in order to acquire equipment enabling it to increase its production of food packaging, primarily for the fresh protein market. The Cascades Inopak plant in Drummondville will benefit from a $15-million investment. This will be used to expand the existing building and to install a high-performance rPET film manufacturing line that is unique in Canada and which includes a built-in, cutting-edge decontamination unit. This will make it possible to significantly increase the production capacity of Integral TM packaging, which is made from recycled PET, is recyclable and allows food in certain markets—such as fresh protein—to be kept for double the amount of time, thus radically reducing food waste. Nearly $6M will be invested in the Kingsey Falls Plastiques Cascades plant to modernize equipment, notably by adding a new extrusion line and two recycling lines, which will increase the production capacity by 25% and double the plant's internal recycling capacity. The Kingsey Falls plant produces EVOK ® , the first polystyrene foam tray in North America to contain at least 25% recycled materials. These investments will facilitate an eventual increase in this percentage and, by extension, further reduce the CO 2 emissions of products marketed by our customers. Click Read More below for additional information.