Sonoco Recycling, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Sonoco and Shoosmith Brothers Inc., recently announced the opening of The Recycling Center, a landfill diversion facility that will be operated by Sonoco Recycling at the Shoosmith Brothers landfill in Chester, Va.
The Recycling Center will handle mixed material loads for recycling. With the new recycling facility, commercial and industrial customers will now be able to recycle unsorted and mixed loads that previously would have gone to landfills. The facility will sort and process items such as mixed paper, metal and plastics. Reclaimed materials will be linked to other end users. Recovered paper, for instance, will go to Sonoco's Richmond paper mill only 12 miles away, lowering the facility's carbon footprint and offering a secure source of supply.
"This new recycling facility is one of the first to be constructed at a landfill with the primary mission of diverting waste destined for land disposal," said Jim Brown, vice president, Sonoco Recycling. "We are capturing materials that previously held no value for customers and returning them to the manufacturing stream to make products that consumers use every day."
"Few facilities exist to accept unsorted industrial and commercial waste destined for landfills," said Fletcher Kelly, vice president of Shoosmith Brothers Inc. "By recovering and repurposing this waste to alternative end uses, we're not only generating additional revenue, but lengthening the life of our landfills."
The recycling facility, operated by Sonoco Recycling on behalf of Shoosmith Brothers, will serve commercial and industrial customers in the Greater Richmond area as well as regionally. As diversion efforts expand, the economic impact of the facility will be visible in various ways, including the ultimate creation of up to a 20 percent increase in new jobs.
