A
S A SURFER HE SAW LOTS OF PLASTIC GARBAGE WASHED UP ON THE
BEACHES OF SOME OF THE WORLD’S BEST SURFING SPOTS. AS
A FATHER HE THOUGHT ABOUT HIS KIDS AND THE WORLD THEY
WOULD GROW UP IN. He realized that a lot of the plastic
garbage was packaging, and he was
part of the supply chain creating the
problem. Some of the top polluters
in the world are consumer products
companies, many of whom he was
doing business with. He determined his
company could — and should — be a
catalyst for helping influence his large
corporate customers to transition to a
more sustainable future.
He thought about his grandfather,
who founded the company in 1946
and who also had a small weekly
newspaper from which, during
the early Civil Rights era, he
fought for racial justice and
against the KKK and won
a Pulitzer Prize for meri-torious
april 2022
service in 1953.
Two generations later,
the fight is for the envi-ronment.
The company’s position
in the supply chain opens up a lot of pos-sibilities
to help improve the entire pack-aging
process from sustainable products
to sustainable disposal.
Sustainable disposal and entering
the recycling business looks to be the
next logical step. The firm operates
a 400,000 square foot R&D facility
called the Solutions Center in Charlotte.
The focus has been innovative pack-age
design and materials testing and
emphasizing sustainable solutions, but
now the center will add a new role. The
facility is set to take delivery, probably
in the fourth quarter this year, of some
“very significant recycling equipment,”
Carter says.
The plan is to improve current munic-ipal
recycling processes by pioneering
better end-to-end solutions, from
development of sustainable products to
sustainable recycling processes.
And hopefully resulting in a healthier
Earth for all of us.
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WBM
PRODUCT PHOTOS COURTESY OF ATLANTIC PACKAGING/PETE ARTEMENKO
ALLISON POTTER