A longtime leader in sustainable packaging and the industry’s only true total solutions provider, Sonoco has taken its commitment to meeting customers’ needs for environmentally responsible packaging to the next level with its True Blue™ brand of sustainable packaging solutions and recycling services.
Sonoco's True Blue brand gives consumer product customers a one-stop shop for sustainable packaging solutions, thereby helping them reduce their environmental footprint. And because Sonoco is not limited to just one sustainable packaging platform, technology or format, customers can choose from a variety of innovative options that assist them in meeting their performance, cost and sustainability requirements.
To qualify for Sonoco's new True Blue brand, a package must provide a clear environmental advantage over the package it was created to replace, either through the use of more sustainable materials or source reduction. A package may also qualify for this new line of sustainable packaging solutions if it requires less energy, water and/or raw material to produce or results in fewer carbon emissions. The True Blue brand’s stringent standards also require that any improvement in the sustainability of a package must be verifiable through a life-cycle assessment, third-party certification or recognition by an independent industry organization.
Sonoco's True Blue product line currently includes shaped and round composite cans; blow-molded plastic containers; thermoformed packages; molded and extruded plastic products; ends and closures; printed flexible packaging; point-of-purchase displays; and protective packaging.
Sonoco's True Blue round rigid paperboard cans contain an average of 50% recycled content by weight and 35% post-consumer recycled content; Sonoco’s composite cans with paper bottoms average 75% recycled content by weight. Significantly more environmentally friendly than steel cans, composite cans from Sonoco require 34% fewer energy inputs and 27% less raw material by weight to produce and result in 20% fewer greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The paperboard used to manufacture Sonoco's round composite cans is 100% recycled content.
Sonoco's Linearpak® shaped rigid paperboard packages, which contain an average of 55% recycled content and 50% post-consumer content, are also part of the True Blue product line. The low-barrier version of the Linearpak can is completely recyclable in the mixed paper stream and the paperboard Sonoco uses to make all of its Linearpak containers is 100% recycled material.
The Company’s growing line of True Blue rigid plastic health and beauty product containers is engineered to require less plastic to produce than typical rigid plastic containers, but provide the same level of product protection, consumer convenience and shelf appeal. Sonoco has also reduced the amount of metal used in its metal ends and closures by approximately 10% in the past few years and continues to pursue downgauging as well as VOC (volatile organic compound) reduction. The Company also offers True Blue approved Ecoseal™ and Safetop® peelable paper membrane closures.
Sonoco's innovative True Blue three-ply, matte-finished, foil-based flexible coffee bags are leaner and greener than traditional four-ply flexible coffee bags, allowing coffee producers to reduce their product’s environmental footprint without sacrificing performance or vibrant packaging. True Blue Sonotort® retort flexible pouches simplify processed food and beverage packaging and, when compared to less sustainable glass jars, provided improved results in a third-party lifecycle assessment, including a 97% reduction in material weight inputs, a 34% reduction in energy inputs and an 85% reduction in GHG emissions.
Sonoco's True Blue sustainable packaging solutions are supported by proprietary sustainable packaging design software that reduces customers’ packaging environmental footprint by substituting or eliminating materials, down-gauging structures and simplifying the package to improve its recyclability. Sonoco also continues to increase the number of partnerships with customers in which it recovers and recycles packaging and reduces landfill wastes coming from their manufacturing, distribution and retail locations.