DAK Americas, Shaw Industries Partner in PET Recycling Plant

DAK Americas LLC, Charlotte, N.C., and Shaw Industries Group Inc., Dalton, Ga., have announced the creation of a new joint-venture company, Clear Path Recycling LLC, to produce recycled PET (RPET) from post-consumer PET (polyethylene terephthalate) bottles.

The companies say they will use the RPET as a feed stock to enhance the value and sustainability of their product offerings.

Clear Path Recycling plans to build a facility to recycle more than 280 million pounds of PET annually, roughly the equivalent of 5 billion bottles. DAK and Shaw will use the RPET in their polyester based products. An estimated 25 percent of the total recycled material produced will be sold through merchant sales.

Clear Path Recycling will construct its new facility in Fayetteville, N.C., at the DAK Americas’ Cedar Creek Site. DAK currently operates a PET resin manufacturing facility on-site and has significant infrastructure in place that the new JV will use.

Construction of the first phase of the new facility is expected to begin in mid 2009 and be operational by the 1st quarter of 2010. Approximately 100 new jobs will be created at the facility at the completion of both phases.

The joint venture is expected to improve internal process economics for DAK and Shaw and to save approximately 2.5 trillion British thermal units of energy annually.