It’s a tall task to replace America’s reliance on plastic grocery bags, six-pack beverage rings and polystyrene products such as Styrofoam with more sustainable alternatives.
But for this company with a large Atlanta presence, greener alternatives to some of those fossil fuel-based products are becoming reality — and are worth a lot of money.
DS Smith, a stalwart British packaging company with its North American operations based in Atlanta’s tallest tower, is undergoing a pending acquisition by Memphis-based International Paper. Valued at about $7.2 billion, the deal was announced in April and is pending regulatory approval across dozens of countries.
It’s the latest in a recent string of large mergers and acquisitions across the paper and shipping industries, many of which involved Atlanta-based companies. David McCracken, business unit director at DS Smith, said his company’s patented water-resistant and food-safe packaging alternatives are the envy of the industry.
“I can’t speak on behalf of International Paper, but I can see why they would want to buy DS Smith. We’re leading the way in sustainability,” he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Founded in London in 1940, DS Smith’s roots are based in box-making, cartons and other corrugated shipping packages. The company entered the U.S. in 2017 through the $920 million acquisition of Interstate Resources and selected Atlanta’s Bank of America Plaza as its North American homebase two years later. Roughly 450 employees are now based in Atlanta.
DS Smith has a larger European presence, which International Paper Chairman and CEO Mark S. Sutton said will strengthen his company’s global reach.
The backbone of DS Smith’s innovation is its GreenCoat technology, which is a water-resistant and wax-free coating that can be applied to recyclable food packaging. It’s “Shop.able Carriers” are boxes that replace five to seven plastic grocery bags, while its biodegradable coolers offer an alternative to those made of plastic foam.
McCracken said the coating can prevent a box from getting soggy for days. Company showcases often feature ice sculptures to prove those claims.
“It didn’t leak a drop,” he said. “Throughout the show, the ice sculpture would melt, and the GreenCoat box would hold the water. That’s how good it is.”
Party tricks aside, McCracken said the technology is a game-changer for shipping frozen poultry, fish and other perishable meats packed in ice.
DS Smith also offers a line of fiber-based six-pack holders to replace plastic ones, which are notorious for entangling marine wildlife. It’s not yet on U.S. shelves, but Atlanta-based Coca-Cola uses it for its bottled drinks in Austria alongside other European beverage companies.
A huge amount of U.S. plastic waste isn’t recycled, and instead ends up in landfills and waterways. DS Smith reported earlier this year that its products have replaced 1 billion pieces of plastic.
DS Smith operates two American paper mills, including one in Riceboro, a coastal Georgia city near Savannah. McCracken said the mills position DS Smith to scale quickly if the International Paper acquisition is approved because the mill’s unused output is currently sold as raw paper exports.
