TAKEAWAYS
1. Sonoco Display and Packaging joined the RafCycle™ by UPM Raflatac program to reduce waste and increase employee awareness of the importance of proper waste segregation.
2. The RafCycle program recycles self-adhesive label waste that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration.
3. RafCycle has been a success for Sonoco Display and Packaging and the program will now be implemented across their other sites in Poland.
Sonoco Display and Packaging helps consumer brands to stand out in retail environments and capture market share with their diverse range of practical and appealing packaging solutions and services – all delivered with high manufacturing efficiency.
Changing employee mindsets
UPM Raflatac’s innovative RafCycle service collects label waste that would otherwise go to landfill or incineration and transports it to be processed and recycled into new materials. Collection is directly from RafCycle partners like Sonoco Display and Packaging, making it an efficient way for companies to move towards a circular economy.
“We joined the RafCycle program to help reduce the amount of waste we make as a company and do our bit towards protecting the environment,” explains Izabela Jędrzejczyk-Beck, Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental Protection Coordinator at Sonoco Display and Packaging. “We also wanted to increase employee awareness of the issues surrounding waste and improve their commitment to waste segregation in the production area. That was the hardest part of the project: increasing awareness, preparing the waste segregation process, and training employees.”
Cooperation delivers results
“The employees involved in waste segregation supported the project,” says Jakub Jaskulski, Health, Safety & Environmental Specialist at Sonoco Display and Packaging, who organized the area for waste after segregation and monitored it daily to ensure correct segregation. “We received positive feedback, so we’ll be expanding the RafCycle initiative to our five other sites in Poland. We aspire to be a company that promotes safety and environmental policy, so RafCycle fits in well with our broader values and vision.
“Our cooperation with UPM Raflatac has been good from the start, with any issues we‘ve raised solved immediately,” says Izabela Jędrzejczyk-Beck. “UPM Raflatac is an innovator in sustainability solutions so we are very proud that we can now boast of being a RafCycle project partner – not to mention how we are helping to protect the environment and our planet!”
Main image: Jakub Jaskulski, Health, Safety & Environmental Specialist (right) and Izabela Jędrzejczyk-Beck, Quality, Health, Safety & Environmental Protection Coordinator (middle), both from Sonoco Display and Packaging, proudly display their RafCycle by UPM Raflatac certificate given by Izabela Antczak, Technical Sales Manager, UPM Raflatac Poland (left).
