Sappi North America, a producer and supplier of diversified paper and packaging products, has joined as a new funding partner of The Recycling Partnership, a national nonprofit that applies corporate funding to improve recycling efforts in communities across the country.
In doing so, the company will be working to help transform recycling nationwide, increase materials recovery, and reduce the creation of greenhouse gases that add to climate change.
Currently, still less than half of recyclables in U.S. homes are getting captured; just 22 million tons out of an available 46 million tons are recycled every year1. While the funding and management of recycling systems has fallen on the shoulders of cities and towns across the country, now, through The Recycling Partnership, nearly 40 companies, including Sappi are committing financial resources to work with the nonprofit and local governments to improve recycling systems.
Since 2015, The Recycling Partnership has invested more than $27 million of corporate funding in recycling infrastructure. Each new funder expands The Partnership's reach to improve recycling through local and national work.
The Recycling Partnership CEO Keefe Harrison said: "Sappi North America has been part of The Recycling Partnership through the Recycling Works in Publishing.
"We are grateful to have them now on board as a direct partner. The work Sappi has done throughout Maine and beyond with co-funding pedestrian recycling bins has been very successful. We look forward to working with their team on generating new ideas and partnerships to improve recycling in cities and towns across the United States."
Sappi North America Sustainable Development and Global Policy Initiatives director Laura Thompson said: "We're excited to further this work by supporting The Recycling Partnership in its mission to transform recycling for good in the U.S. We are proud of the work that we have already completed with the Partnership over the years, and we are ready to make an even larger impact on recycling in our country moving forward.”
For the last two years, Thompson has served as the chair of Recycling Works in Publishing (RWIP), a member of The Recycling Partnership. Last fall, Sappi worked with The Partnership to launch a recycling cart program in the city of Portland, Maine, increasing access to recycling for the city's residents.
