Sonoco Recycling And South Carolina Kick Off Recycling At Welcome Centers

Sonoco Recycling, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonoco (NYSE: SON) and one of the largest packaging recyclers in North America, today helped kick off the “South Carolina Welcomes You to Recycle” program at the York, S.C., welcome center.

The program is a public-private partnership between Sonoco Recycling, the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC); the S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (SCPRT); the S.C. Department of Transportation (SCDOT); and PalmettoPride. An extension of the “ Recycling at the Parks” partnership, begun in 2010, the “South Carolina Welcomes You to Recycle” program encourages South Carolina motorists and visitors to the state to recycle their road-trip waste instead of trashing it.

“The ‘South Carolina Welcomes You to Recycle’ program is a natural addition to the ‘Recycling at the Parks’ partnership,” said Lee Tsiantis, maintenance contracts manager, SCDOT. “We are beginning with the York County site in November, and hope to continue to add more until we are able to have all nine welcome centers recycling.”

“The County will be collecting the material from the welcome center and transporting it to Sonoco Recycling,” said Arthur Ligon, supervisor, Collection and Recycling with York County. “With approximately 500,000 annual visitors to the York site and the potential of reaching 1.3 million total visitors by next year, we are eager to see how this program grows recycling in South Carolina.”

Jim Brown, vice president, Sonoco Recycling, agrees, “The effort to increase recycling by visitors and tourists goes hand in hand with our growing focus on recycling education in South Carolina schools, and demonstrates our Company’s commitment to changing the recycling culture in South Carolina.”

Sonoco Recycling is buying containers and program stickers to be placed at each welcome center. The Company will also be processing the materials collected at the York County site.