European Metal Recycling Ltd. (EMR) and MBA Polymers Inc. have announced the formation of a joint venture company to build and operate a plastics recycling facility in the United Kingdom, though a final location has yet to be chosen. The joint company plans to begin operation of a 60,000-metric-tons-per-year processing plant by early next year.
The new company, called MBA Polymers UK, is majority owned by MBA Polymers and will recover plastics from upgraded shredder residue. EMR presently operates nine shredders in the United Kingdom.
EMR is concentrating the plastics fraction of the shredder residue produced from its large-scale metal recycling operations. This additional processing will also allow EMR to capture a higher percentage of the metals. The plant will only take material supplied by EMR.
The company will receive concentrated plastics-rich material from EMR’s facilities and will clean, sort and upgrade the plastics, selling the recovered plastics to MBA’s customers.
EMR, headquartered in Warrington, England, handles more than 10 million metric tons of recyclables per year. The company operates at more than 100 locations worldwide.
MBA Polymers Inc., based in Richmond, Calif., recycles high-value plastics from complex waste streams and end-of-life durable goods, such as appliances, computer and business equipment, automobiles and sporting equipment.
AERT Receives Funding to Build Plastics Recycling FacilityAERT Inc. has closed on $13.5 million in financing to fund a plastic waste mining and reclamation facility, known as the Advanced Resource Recovery Project (ARRP), near Watts, Okla. AERT expects the facility, to be operational by the end of 2008, to reduce its raw material costs and assure a stable raw materials supply.
The financing comes through Adair County Industrial Authority Solid Waste Recovery Facilities Revenue Bonds.
"With petrochemical prices skyrocketing and supply becoming increasingly unpredictable, we set out two years ago to develop a proprietary source of raw materials that would insulate us from price and supply gyrations," Joe Brooks, AERT CEO, says.
Lehigh Technologies Considers New Facility SitesLehigh Technologies Inc., a manufacturer of rubber powder made from scrap tires, is considering four different locations for two new plants that it intends to build.
According to the Naples, Fla.-based company, the new plant sites are part of Lehigh’s effort to triple production capacity of its ultra-fine rubber powder. The company is moving aggressively in the final selection process and hopes to announce the location of its two new plant sites by early 2008.
Lehigh executives have narrowed down the location of the plants to sites in Alabama, California, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Each site will employ from 75 to 100 people in facilities that will be approximately 120,000 square feet in size. The company already has one plant in Tucker, Ga., and plans to break ground for its second plant in early 2008, with the third plant to follow shortly thereafter. Once completed, Lehigh will have the ability to produce more than 300 million pounds of its engineered rubber powder for manufacturers in the automotive, rubber, plastics and other polymer product consuming industries.
The Staubach Co. is leading the search for the sites of two new plants.
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