SoBRO, Parallel Products Receive Grant

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has announced that the South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corp. (SoBRO), Bronx, N.Y., will receive $400,000 to work with Parallel Products Inc., a Bronx recycling company, to expand its operations and create jobs.

The program—the South Bronx Recycling Expansion Program (SBREP)—started operation in October 2010.
The focus of the program revolves around the purchase of recycling equipment that will allow Parallel to increase the amount of plastic scrap it can process. According to SoBRO, the equipment, along with training and recruitment efforts, will nearly triple Parallel’s capacity over the three-year life of the grant.

“One of our nation’s greatest challenges is the management of our resources and the waste that we produce,” says Jim Russell, vice president of Operations for Parallel Product’s New England operations. “This grant will help New York do just that. We can accelerate our ongoing expansion of plastic processed from recycled beverage containers and create training programs for new ‘green collar’ jobs. Thanks to SoBRO and the Bronx community, Parallel Products can hit our triple bottom line of people, planet and profit today and in the future.”

Currently, Parallel ships plastic containers to its New Bedford, Mass., facility for sorting and processing. The new grinding equipment to be purchased will allow the company to separate different colors of PET on site. The equipment is scheduled for delivery in the first quarter of 2011.

Parallel Products’ Bronx facility, which opened in 2006, provides processing of materials returned through reverse vending machines and container redemption operations. The facility collects and recycles more than 1.2 billion aluminum, plastic and glass containers each year, according to the company.