NC Marine Debris Symposium - 2017 The Cost of Recycling NC Marine Debris Symposium - 2017 Sonoco Recycling Onslow/NHC - MRF Presented by: Brian Shea, Plant Manager

Two Facilities – One MRF Operation New Hanover Operations (~3,000TPM): Process 80% of Stream -Mixed Paper, Cardboard, Glass, Residue -Leverage exports and Wilmington Port Open commercial business and processing for local communities to recycling single fiber commodities -Cardboard, SOP, highgrade fibers 3. Ship remaining highgrade material to the Onslow facility to be additionally sorted Onslow Operations (~3,000TPM): Continue to process materials from surrounding communities Leverage the new investments (Optical Sorter/Metering Bin/Tipping Floor) to efficiently blend and sort remaining containers from NHC in order to maximize throughput Continue to be a leader in commercial baling operations

Acceptable List of Materials 3 Acceptable List of Materials Aerosol cans Aluminum Bottle caps & lids  Cardboard Glass bottles/jars Juice boxes  Milk and juice cartons Paper Pizza boxes Plastics 1-5 & 7 Spiral paper cans Steel/tin cans

Who is Sonoco? Consumer Packaging Tubes and Cores/Paper Other Services 4 Who is Sonoco? Consumer Packaging Tubes and Cores/Paper Global Engineered Carriers Sonoco Recycling Global Paper Global Composite Cans Plastic Containers Other Flexible Packaging Metal & Plastic Closures Protective Packaging Molded Plastics Services Service Centers, Graphics Management and P-O-P Displays

Common Examples of Contamination Hoses and Wires Medical Waste Clothing These are the most common examples of residue from Curbside Recycling programs. Food Waste Plastic Bags

Contamination Issues - Summary 6 Contamination Issues - Summary 3 Primary Issues Equipment Issues Mechanical failure Residue/Housekeeping Issues Personnel State Regulation Quality Issues Contamination Supply chain issues

Equipment Issues Bags, hoses, metal wiring get caught in almost every part of the recycling process.

Equipment Issues (cont.) Because of contamination, sorting screens need to be cleaned multiple times per day, sometimes in between breaks.

Equipment Issues (cont.) Bags can get caught in motors/gearboxes causing significant downtime and money.

Residue/Housekeeping Issues Bags typically contain food/waste contamination which cannot be efficiently recycled.

Residue/Housekeeping Issues (cont.) The plant is cleaned daily, but bags continually cause a housekeeping issue inside the plant.

Residue/Housekeeping Issues (cont.) Also causes outside housekeeping issues. State Regulation requires landfill properties to be kept clean at all times. Bags pose a challenge to this standard.

Residue/Housekeeping Issues (cont.) Significant time, energy, and money is spent cleaning the property of wind blown bags and film.

Quality Issues Line Sorters dedicated on Post Fiber to pull bags / contaminants out of MP Fiber before finishing process.

Quality Issues (cont.) Domestic Paper Mills (customers) require less than 2% tolerance on contamination. Exports (China) standards are changing to less than 0.3% contamination.

Quality Issues (cont.) Bale of Mixed Paper Paper Mills do have cleaning systems, but excessive residue causes quality issues throughout the entire supply chain. Increases the cost of recycling to manage chargebacks/rejections.

Exports – Chinese Ban on Mixed Paper/Mixed Plastics Effective January 1st, 2018 China has placed a ban on all Mixed Paper and Mixed Plastic grades due to excessive industry wide contamination. This is sending shockwaves through the industry, instilling a new focus on quality.

Statistics 2016 Avg Residue: 12.76% Curbside Commingle Recycled: ~60,000 tons annually Tons of Residue Processed (incl bags): Est ~7,600 tons/year Cost to Process Residue: Est ~$25,000/month or over $300,000 annually.

Statistics (cont.) 2015 v. 2017 Avg Residue: +2.15% Steadily increasing residue rates in the curbside recycling programs and forcing MRF’s to focus on inbound quality and community education.

Questions?