MBA Polymers Founder Receiving Energy and Environment Award at Innovation Awards Ceremony

The Economist has announced that Michael Biddle, founder and president of MBA Polymers, will receive the Energy and Environment award at the magazine’s upcoming Innovation Awards ceremony, which will be held on Oct. 21st 2010 in London.

Biddle founded Michael Biddle & Associates in 1992 to demonstrate the possibility of extracting and recycling scrap plastics from complex waste streams. The company expanded to a pilot line in Berkeley, Calif., and was renamed MBA Polymers in 1994.

In addition to its California location, MBA Polymers has facilities in Guangzhou, China; Kematan, Austria; and will be holding a grand opening for its first plant in Great Britain Oct. 1.

MBA Polymers, headquartered in Richmond, Calif., recovers materials from a variety of sources, including computers, electronics, appliances and automobiles. The company has developed a number of processes for separating polymeric materials from complex waste products. The separated materials are used in a number of different applications. MBA Polymers adds that its process requires less than 10 percent of the energy needed to make plastics from petrochemicals. 

The company says that it has recovered more than 100 million pounds of plastic in just the last three years and is expanding its production capacity significantly.

The Innovation Awards program seeks to identify the individuals who are responsible for innovations that have been a proven success in the past decade. The seven categories are: bioscience, business process, computing and telecoms, consumer goods and services, energy and the environment, social and economic innovation, and “no boundaries.”

For further information on the awards, visit www.economistinnovation.com.