Two major end users of recycled materials – one in paper, one in aluminum – recently announced milestones in their upgrade efforts.
Sonoco has brought its uncoated recycled paperboard (URB) machine on-line in Hartsville, S.C. The upgrade is part of its Project Horizon, a $125 million investment to transform the company’s former corrugated medium machine into a URB operation.
The machine also means the company is working with 100% recycled fibers in the Hartsville Mill Complex.
“This machine was designed to be one of the largest and lowest cost producers of URB in the world – paving the way for the future of our Hartsville paper mill complex and our global position as a high quality URB provider,” Rodger Fuller, Sonoco’s chief operating officer said in a press release.
The century-old Hartsville Mill Complex is where the company produces almost one-third of its U.S. and Canadian URB. The recently updated machine is anticipated to create $30 million in annual cost savings by 2024. Following the arrival of the high-capacity URB machine, two less-efficient cylinder machines will be permanently shut down by the end of the month.
Meanwhile, aluminum giant Novelis has broken ground on its $2.5 billion aluminum recycling/rolling plant in Alabama.
The facility is expected to have an initial annual capacity of 600,000 metric tons of finished aluminum goods, focused on the beverage container market but with flexibility for automotive production, when it comes on-line in 2025. It will increase the company’s recycling capacity by 15 billion cans per year.
To encourage recycling, Novelis also launched a partnership with Baldwin County to provide recycling bins and education at all county-owned buildings, and it plans to further invest in future programs to encourage Alabamans to recycle more.
