<B>WMI Expanding Plastics Recycling</B>

Waste Management Inc. is investing heavily in an all-bottles plastics recycling center, a potentially significant move by the nation´s largest waste hauler assisting the plastics industry´s strategy for boosting sagging recycling rates.

WMI purchased P&R Environmental Industries late last year. The company is a plastics recycler. Waste Management is looking to use the purchase as a springboard to allow Waste Management to handle recyclable plastics in North Carolina.

Steve Ragiel, vice president of recycling at Waste Management, said the company already has experience operating large sorting recycling centers. The company has eight facilities in the country that handle glass recycling.

But Waste Management stopped short of a full endorsement of the plastics industry´s all-bottles strategy.