Sonoco Open House

Junk Rescue attended an open house today at Sonoco's Charlotte Recycling Center.  Sonoco, one of the largest global packaging companies, just completed an expansion of their recycling facility located at 3901 Barringer Drive.  They will now be able to process even larger volumes of recycled materials, including glass, plastic, and metal containers.

The $2 million expansion takes the Charlotte facility to approximately 24,000 square feet while adding state-of-the-art sorting and baling equipment.  In addition, the center's yard space has been redesigned to improve traffic flow and unloading at the facility.  Sonoco's Charlotte facility used to only accept and process corrugated cardboard and other grades of paper products.  As of Monday, they will now be able to accept plastic, glass, and metal containers mixed in with paper and cardboard.   Through a material sorting process, they will be able to separate all of the materials from each other before shipping it to their different packaging centers.  This makes Sonoco the first zero sort recycling facility in the Charlotte region.

http://www.sonoco.com/sonoco

Plastic Bottles Are BANNED!

During the 2005 legislative session, the N.C. General Assembly passed House Bill 1465, banning plastic bottles from disposal effective October 1, 2009. The law does not apply to containers that are intended for use in the sale and distribution of motor oil or plastic pesticide bottles.

Recycling plastic bottles conserves energy and resources and creates jobs; more than 14,000 people are employed in the recycling industry in North Carolina.  Bottles can be recycled back into plastic bottles, or can have a completely new life as a different product - such as carpet, lumber, other types of containers or even clothing.  North Carolina and the southeast are home to plastic plants hungry for material to make new products, so recycling your bottles is a great way to close the recycling loop!

At least 95 percent of North Carolina residents have access to some type of plastic bottle recycling through local government programs. Unfortunately, North Carolinians currently only recycle 18 percent of PET plastic bottles. Do your part - recycle plastic bottles - and explore this site to learn how!

http://www.p2pays.org/BannedMaterials/PlasticBottles/index.asp