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Sonoco brings more to packaging than the physical wrapping. The company’s integrated solutions help define brand personalities, create unique customer experiences, and enhance the quality of products for people around the world. Hannah Barnett spoke to VP Global Environmental, Sustainability, & Technical Services Elizabeth Rhue and VP & General Manager, Paper & Fiber Supply, US/CAN, Palace
Stepps to find out more.
Sonoco was established 125 years ago in Hartsville, South Carolina, with 12 employees and one vision.
“The company is rooted in small town USA,” Elizabeth Rhue, VP Global, Environmental, Sustainability, & Technical Services, said.
“Our CEO, Howard Coker, is fifth generation to the founder, who, in 1899, wanted to build a company focused on innovation.
“Sustainability has always been at our core; we’ve been using recycled fiber in our paper based products for well over 100 years. We like to say we were sustainable before it was cool.”
Indeed, producing paper cones instead of wooden ones for the textile industry was a significant early innovation for the company. Sonoco later expanded outside of paper into plastics and flexible packaging. This is in addition to the industrial and healthcare ranges, plus
the Thermosafe division includes reusable packaging, giving the company recyclable and reusable offerings.
In 2022, the company further expanded its portfolio to include metal food and aerosol cans, an acquisition that increased annual revenue to $7.3 billion. Sonoco now employs 20,000 employees across 34 countries.
Recycling with robots
One of Sonoco’s most innovative recent projects has been a partnership with AMP Robotics, which uses AI to sort, identify, and recover recyclable items. The robots are programmed to identify different Sonoco products and ensure they are properly sorted.
“Essentially, any AMP robot in a Material Recovery Facility (MRF) across the globe could be programmed to recognize a particular packaging format,” said Ms. Rhue,
“so we can increase the likelihood that packaging is properly recycled. It’s been a great project for us, because it’s allowed us to open up the avenue of sortation for particular packaging formats.” Palace Stepps, VP & General Manager, Paper & Fiber Supply, US/CAN, heads up the recycling teams
“Generally, we focus on containers with the robots, things that may be valuable or a little bit different in terms of shape, size, or material,” he explained. “The robotic neural network is clever and can focus on specific products, even if they’re discolored or disfigured. The AMP robot is much better than other sorting equipment at identifying those materials.”
One of the main challenges comes when sorting packaging that is made of multiple materials. Education remains an important tool in the wider community when establishing what is recyclable, too. “Sometimes we have consumers who are well
meaning and want to maximize what they recycle, but don’t understand some of the difficulties,” said Mr. Stepps. “For instance, the plastic cord from Christmas tree lights; that can wrap around rotating equipment in our process, which can cause us to have to stop our production line.”
Sustainable on all fronts
Sonoco has also recently increased its focus on paper based flexible packaging.
This has meant developing a structure that maintains the appropriate shelf life and functionality of a product, but is made primarily out of paper, and can be recycled in a kerbside recycling stream.
“We also have several initiatives on the plastic side of our business,” Ms. Rhue added, “increasing the use of recycled content in our rigid plastic containers, minimizing the use of virgin plastics and ensuring that we’re
improving the sortability of containers at the MRF. For example, we are using NIR detectable black colorants in our rigid plastic trays.”
The company also has several worldwide initiatives to reduce emissions via solar projects at some of its facilities. In 2023, it broke ground on two PV installations; one in Texas, the other at corporate headquarters in South Carolina.
“We also continue to work on projects that drive energy efficiency in our facilities,” said Ms. Rhue. “We are looking at boilers across our network, making sure that they’re efficient and at ways to convert them to biogas or other lower emission fuels.” Sonoco
won an award through American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA) in 2023 for Sonoco’s project to convert methane gas from its anaerobic digester into renewable natural gas.
Something that sets the company apart is that it is highly self-sufficient. Running its own recycling facilities, in the U.S. and around the world, has allowed Sonoco to become one of the largest recyclers in North America.
This provides a usefully thorough, and somewhat rare, cradle to grave awareness of sustainability. “We have a real understanding of how a packaging design can impact the ability of that package
Sonoco’s 2030 Commitments
• 25% reduction of Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
• Reduce Scope 3 emissions in line with 2° Absolute Contraction Approach.
• Reduce energy use by 8% at plants. Conduct water risk studies at sites by 2024.
• Implement Operation Clean Sweep by 2025.
to be recycled at end of life,” Ms. Rhue explained. “And I think that gives us a unique advantage that many of our competitors do not have.”
Proactive partnerships
Like any effective global company, especially one operating on the scale that Sonoco does, a strong relationship with suppliers is crucial. As Ms. Rhue explained: “Our suppliers are a large part of our success. We ensure that they have a clear understanding of our goals, objectives, and expectations, and we hold them accountable for bringing solutions to us that correspond.”
The company has also sustained long term relationships with suppliers, navigating difficult periods, such as the Covid pandemic Though the company’s self-sufficiency comes into play again, too.
“One of the secrets to Sonoco’s success is that we own a lot of the supply chain,” Mr. Stepps added. “And we are vertically integrated, meaning the recycling side feeds fibers into our paper business. I’m also responsible for adhesives; we supply our own adhesives, as well as our own paper and a host of other things across the integrated supply chain. Managing the upstream materials means we can control the cost, and the availability to some extent, and run our operations much more efficiently, as a result.”
Looking ahead, Sonoco will continue to grow sustainably, though, according to Ms. Rhue that is not a proposition without its own challenges: “There are questions like: ‘How do we raise production and bring in new business without increasing our environmental footprint?’ And we know we are
VP Global, Environmental, Sustainability, & Technical Services
VP & General Manager, Paper & Fiber Supply, US/CAN
a pretty energy intensive industry, in terms of paper making. In some cases, the technology doesn’t exist yet to help us drive the emissions to the level that we would want.”
Ms. Rhue, who started her career at Sonoco as an R&D engineer working on material development and design, has found the move into sustainability a fulfilling one, strengthened by her strong product knowledge. “The opportunity to mix business strategy with sustainability is that sweet spot for me,” she said. “Whether it’s a new package innovation, or a project at one of our facilities, anything that helps to drive
both a good business and environmental outcome is very fulfilling.”
Sonoco continues to stay ahead of the sustainable curve, growing and evolving, something the company has always done. “We continue to reinvent ourselves,” Mr. Stepps concluded. “That’s one of the things that attracted me to Sonoco from the start. As the demands of the consumers who use our packaging change, we keep innovating and growing into different packaging platforms. We are a large, but highly nimble, focused, and growing company.”
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