Laid off from Dart Container.

What Dart Container layoffs have meant for employees

Augusta's cups were to keep being made in Toronto, according to the Associated Press, and the company told The News-Gazette that other Dart locations could absorb Urbana's volumes and customers. At Tumwater, a spokesperson told The JOLT that the Lacey distribution center had no open positions for those workers. What Dart named at those closings was severance or job placement help. Solo's own 2010 closings went further, putting workers first in line for openings elsewhere in the company, the Springfield Business Journal reported, so if you're hoping to follow the work to another Dart site, the nearest thing to a promise on record came from Solo before Dart acquired it.

Lead times have ranged widely, at least where the public record can measure them. Dart announced Augusta's closing more than a year ahead, Illinois's report shows about two months between Urbana's filing and its first layoff date, and California's shows nearly five months for Corona's 2025 notice. Those are announcement and filing lead times, not necessarily the warning any one employee got. At Thomaston, the employer's Georgia filing described the reduction as immediate and said it would cover the notice period with 60 days' wages and benefits. Even a long lead time leaves your own date open. Dart said Urbana's employment would draw down as it met final production commitments, so if your plant closes, the plant's date and your own may differ.

Georgia's WARN entry identifies those 60 days as notice-period pay rather than calling them severance, saying they were "to account for the notice period under WARN." If you're given a package, it's the line-by-line split, not the total, that shows which money is notice pay and which is severance, so having that split spelled out is worth the trouble. Union contracts are a separate matter. At Augusta, Dart said any severance might run through them, while Thomaston's entry answers no to the union question. Where a contract covers a plant, it may be where those terms sit.

Foam is the one product where state law has entered the record. It made up a fifth of the products Dart sold in early 2020, when CEO Jim Lammers told The New York Times, "We don't believe there are good, objective reasons to single out certain materials." In California, Dart itself pointed to SB 54 for its 2024 cuts, according to Packaging Dive. In Maryland the link is timing the Times reported, not a reason it attributes to Dart, since the paper says that shortly after the state voted to ban foam, Dart shut its two warehouses there, displacing 90 workers and sending a signal to other places considering similar laws.

In 2020 Dart said it was aligning administrative and sales staffing with customer demands, according to WILX, and in 2024 CEO Keith Clark said growth had stagnated, inflation had hit customers and imports were underpricing domestic makers, per the Lansing State Journal. Dart's workforce figure went from about 15,000 in early 2020 to 13,000 in 2024, about 2,000 fewer, a drop that takes in closings and ordinary departures as well as layoffs. So a job at headquarters hasn't been separate from the sales and demand pressures Dart describes.

If you're looking up a notice for a plant, Dart's own name can send you the wrong way. In our WARN tracker, every filing from outside California since Dart's purchase carries a Solo Cup Operating Corporation name, the one Packaging Dive says Thomaston does business under in Georgia, and an April 2023 notice on Oklahoma's list carries it with a Mason, Michigan, address. So Solo Cup will serve you better there than Dart for most of these plants, and older notices can sit under Sweetheart Cup. Our pages for California, Georgia, Illinois, Michigan and Washington set out unemployment benefits in the states these cuts touched. For a package with room to talk, severance negotiation basics are a place to start.

A sourced history of Dart Container layoffs

• October 2025, Corona, California, closing notice

  Dart's notice listed 171 jobs in our tracker, and California's report marks it a permanent closure effective February 27, 2026. Packaging Dive reported the manufacturing site would be shut by February's end.

• October 2024, Lodi closing and Corona layoffs, California

  California's report lists a 75-job closure at Lodi and a 75-job layoff at Corona, both effective December 23, 2024, and both in our tracker. Dart pointed to the impacts of California's SB 54 on foam food ware, according to Packaging Dive.

• September 2024, corporate cut including Mason headquarters

  Dart laid off about 250 employees, some 160 at its Mason headquarters, to "balance administrative costs with current sales volumes," offering severance, a stipend for those enrolled in Dart medical plans and job-search help, the Lansing State Journal reported.

• August 2023, Urbana, Illinois, plant closing announced

  Dart said it would stop operating the former Solo plant by year's end, citing declining production volume, and make offers of severance and job placement help to about 135 workers, The News-Gazette reported. Illinois's report and our tracker list 138.

• March 2023, Thomaston, Georgia, layoffs

  Dart laid off 84 workers after a drop in demand, Packaging Dive reported. Georgia's WARN entry lists a permanent reduction and says all 84 would be paid 60 days wages and benefits for the notice period.

• March 2023, Tumwater, Washington, plant closing

  Dart confirmed it was closing its smallest plant, where about 30 people made foam packaging, citing decreasing demand in the area. A spokesperson told The JOLT employees would get an offer of severance and job placement services.

• February 2020, corporate and sales staff cut

  Dart cut about 6% of its administrative and sales staff worldwide, including about 65 people on its Mason campus, and offered severance based on their years of service, extra money for those on Dart medical plans and outplacement help, WILX reported.

• November 2017, Augusta, Georgia, paper cup plant closing

  Dart said it would close the plant by early 2019 over lower demand, with about 160 people working there, the Associated Press reported. Employees might be eligible for severance under union contracts, a company spokesperson said.

• June 2010, Solo Cup announces three plant closings

  Before Dart owned it, Solo announced closings in Owings Mills, Maryland, North Andover, Massachusetts, and Springfield, Missouri, that would cut 540, 360 and 340 jobs, and gave those workers priority at its other plants, the Springfield Business Journal reported.

What to do if you're laid off from Dart Container

• File for unemployment in the state where you worked. Benefits run from your filing date, and severance usually doesn't block you. Dart Container's biggest hubs: California, Georgia, Illinois. Somewhere else? Every state is here.
• Apply for financial and hardship assistance. Unemployment supplements income, but food benefits, health coverage and utility help are often available as well. Here's some of what Dart Container's hub states run: California, Georgia, Illinois, and every other state is here.
• Mind the health insurance window. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment period, and an ACA plan usually beats unsubsidized COBRA. Compare your options before the employer coverage lapses, and read how the COBRA clocks run if you are weighing it seriously.
• Get your real runway number. Severance plus savings divided by reality. The calculator takes five minutes.
• Know which clocks are already running. Severance review windows, COBRA election, visa grace periods, and 401(k) rollovers all run on federal deadlines that started at termination. All five deadlines are here.