ReCommunity Acquires Two Michigan Facilities

ReCommunity Recycling, a Charlotte, N.C-based recycling company, has acquired Great Lakes Recycling’s (GLR) single-stream plants in Huron Township and Roseville, Mich. ReCommunity also has acquired Great Lakes Recycling’s OCC (old corrugated containers) processing facility in Michigan. The deal was completed Nov. 1, 2011.

Sandy Rosen, CEO of GLR, headquartered in Roseville, says his company will continue to operate facilities in Roseville, Warren and Flint, Mich., as well as a recycling facility in North Tonawanda, N.Y.

“The plan going forward is to continue to handle most commodities, but get out of the single-stream business,” Rosen says.

In a ReCommunity press release, Rosen says, “Selling was the furthest thing from our minds when we initially met with ReCommunity earlier this year. But once we got to know them and understand what they’re about, we quickly became excited about the opportunity it presented for us, our employees and overall recycling in Southeast Michigan.”

The Huron facility processes around 70,000 tons per year, while the Roseville facility processes around 80,000 tons per year.

ReCommunity already operates recycling and recovery facilities in Ann Arbor, Saginaw and Southfield, Mich. The two new Michigan plants increase the number of ReCommunity facilities to 20 MRFs and one transfer station operating in 10 states.

“We are pleased to join with our new community partners to bring the Recovery Revolution to Huron Township and Roseville, Michigan,” says James Bohlig, CEO of ReCommunity. “ReCommunity is a company with a purpose.”  

"We see a lot of opportunity in Michigan, and the Roseville and Huron facilities are complimentary to our existing facilities in the region," Bohlig adds.

“We were excited about the opportunities to have our operations joined by ReCommunity because we have such a similar culture. We were happy to be working with them,” Rosen adds.

Despite selling off the single-stream plants, Rosen says GLR plans to continue growing its existing operations, albeit with a different approach. He says the company hopes to possibly open one or two more recycling centers during the next several years. GLR also will upgrade and improve its existing operations to increase the value of the metals and plastics it presently processes, the company says.

ReCommunity was formed through the acquisition of Casella Waste assets by Pegasus Capital Advisors LP,  Intersection LLC HarbourVest Partners and MissionPoint Capital Partners in March 2011.