Atlantic Packaging Charlotte Solution Center

The Atlantic Packaging Solution Center in Charlotte, North Carolina serves as the company’s hub for testing and demonstrating sustainable packaging solutions, making TRUE Gold certification a natural extension of the facility’s mission. It is also Atlantic’s most customer-facing facility, providing us with a daily opportunity to show our customers how we prioritize zero-waste practices, and we encourage them to do the same. Achieving a 95.6% diversion rate required auditing every material stream and establishing vendor relationships to ensure responsible end markets for each one — from OCC and poly film to organics, wood pallets, and paper. 

Employee engagement was central to the facility’s success. The team standardized recycling, composting, and landfill bins throughout the facility, hosted a Zero Waste Training Lunch & Learn, and eliminated single-use food service items in favor of reusable alternatives. An employee garden behind the warehouse — grown with compost purchased back from local partner Crown Town Compost — has become a tangible, daily symbol of the facility’s zero waste culture, and employees are encouraged to take home what the garden produces. 

Beyond its own walls, the facility supports the Charlotte community by partnering with Crown Town Compost to keep organic waste out of landfills while supporting a local business, and by offering employees a dedicated e-waste collection area for responsible electronics disposal.

“TRUE certification gave us a framework to be rigorous about zero waste in a way that goes beyond good intentions. It pushed us to verify every end market, document every material stream, and prove our diversion rate with real data — not estimates. For a facility that works directly with customers on their own sustainability challenges every day, it was important that we hold ourselves to the same standard we help others pursue.” - Gabie Giers, Sustainability Analyst, Atlantic Packaging

Learn more about the Center's TRUE Gold certification. 

Photo credit: Brennen Poetter, Atlantic Packaging