DS Smith marks 1st anniversary of recycling plant
After a pandemic-driven spike in e-commerce and the spread of unrecyclable problem plastics, DS Smith Packaging marked the anniversary of the opening of its Reading, Pa., recycling plant.
The company produces recyclable packaging, operating a “circular economy trifecta,” thanks to the recycling plant, paper mill and packaging manufacturing facility, all a few miles apart, according to a news release.
That concept allows corrugated packaging to be made, produced, collected and recycled within 14 days, critical as retailers have scrambled to keep pace with higher demands for shipping boxes from stay-at-home shoppers over the past year.
Reading's circular approach is a model for the company's operational expansion in North America.
The local recycling facility processes more than 36,000 tons of corrugated cardboard each year, which contributes to the company’s goal of sending zero cardboard and paper to landfills after packaging is used.
The recycling plant compresses recyclable papers and cardboard into large bundled bales, as heavy as a ton each. Those bales are sent across the street to the paper mill where it is processed into the recycled-content paper used at the nearby packaging facility.
Besides the material from DS Smith’s Reading corrugated packaging plant, the local team has worked with others in the region to recover paper for recycling from local distribution centers, packaging facilities, retailers and print shops.
“Having these three facilities in such close proximity enables us to reduce corrugated waste to local landfills with our 14-day box-to-box process, where we collect, recycle and convert old corrugated cardboard into new, sustainable packing, ready for the supply chain,” Giancarlo Maroto, managing director of paper, forestry and recycling for North America, said in the release.
“The best part is we can recycle the cardboard and boxes seven to 10 times, contributing to the circular economy model of reduce, reuse and recycle.”
The three Reading plants processed 20,000 tons of fibers at the recycling facility and took in nearly 240,000 tons of recovered fibers, mostly old corrugated containers, at its paper mill.
The result was 1 billion square feet of sustainable, recyclable packaging produced at the Reading packaging facility, advancing sustainability while providing critical packaging materials for the global supply chain at a time of unprecedented challenges.
As part of DS Smith’s sustainability strategy, the company by 2030 will use packaging and recycling to replace problem plastics, reduce customer carbon and eliminate consumer packaging waste.
The company operates in more than 30 countries. North American operations are headquartered in Atlanta, with 15 manufacturing, paper and recycling facilities, totaling more than 2,000 employees.
