HuhTamki

Huhtamki is a paper manufacturer base largely in Desoto Kansas. They are the ones that design and create essentially every paper cup and plate that we see in the fast food market. Everyone from KFC to Taco Bell and McDonald's uses Huhtamki to manufacture their paper containers. They use a great many machines such as presses, printers, cutters, and rollers to create the cups and containers that their clients require and in fact build most of their own equipment right on site using computer controlled machining. Many of the dies for both old and brand new cups are still located at the facility as they are proprietary objects. What was most interesting though was to find out that not all the cups were allowed to go to the same states. Most prominently California has such stringent laws that about 95% of the cup has to be recyclable. I found this a bit laughable in my Midwestern mentality in that the state laws are placing essentially all of the responsibility for the disposal of the container on the manufacturer rather that having to worry about cleaning up the mess themselves and ensuring that the waste is disposed of in the proper manor. But it is what it is and the politics have allowed it. The over all facility is very efficient in that all of the waste is sent through a central vacuum system to the waste room as well has using mostly robotic lifts to move completed pallets to inventory. Quite a fascinating facility.