EFS-plastics adds third facility

EFS-plastics Inc., a plastics recycling company headquartered in Listowel, Ontario, has announced that it is opening a new processing facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, which will increase its access to the feedstock it needs to produce its recycled resins.

The 70,000-square-foot facility will increase the company’s processing capacity by 10,000 metric tons, or 20 percent, annually, EFS-plastics says.

Beginning in the first week of April, the company will accept Nos. 3-7 and Nos. 1-7 mixed rigid plastic bales from material recovery facilities (MRFs) in the western United States and Canada, tapping into the strong relationships EFS has developed with these suppliers since China implemented its National Sword Policy that limited the export of postconsumer plastics in 2018. The company will be recovering high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP) to produce postconsumer resin (PCR).

“We have been sourcing material from MRFs in the Pacific Northwest and western Canada since 2018,” Eadaoin Quinn, the company’s director of business development and procurement, says. “A facility in Lethbridge, Alberta, solidifies already strong relationships with suppliers and reduces [the] carbon footprint associated with transportation.”

“As we increase the amount of recycled resin we produce, we remain focused on keeping our carbon footprint as low as possible,” says Martin Vogt, president and CEO of EFS-plastics. “This new location allows us to cut carbon emissions associated with transportation as we extend the impact of our highly automated, mechanical recycling operations.”

While Quinn says the company will not be sourcing film for this facility initially, “we continue to look for new sources of film to supply our Ontario and Pennsylvania facility from across North America.”

The Lethbridge site will sort the mixed rigid plastic scrap using a process that is almost entirely automated using proprietary equipment, Quinn says. “However, we will make use of some manual quality control, allowing us to handle a broader spectrum of bale quality.”

The company says it sees the opportunity to recover more material from western North America that is lost to landfill or exported overseas. As interest in PCR grows, EFS  says it is committed to developing domestic end markets that simplify the work of MRFs and provide customers with the high-quality postconsumer resin they seek.

Quinn adds that EFS is seeing increased demand for its PCR because of higher PE and PP pricing. “More importantly though, we are seeing new interest in PCR from brands that are looking to meet their public commitments and from manufacturers trying to stay ahead of legislative requirements that are popping up around North America.”

In addition to its Listowel facility, EFS operates a facility in Hazelton, Pennsylvania, where it also produces PP repro for injection molding applications, PE repro for injection molding and extrusion applications, low-density PE repro for extrusion applications and HDPE repro for extrusion and blow molding applications. Last summer the company vertically integrated, acquiring Exi-Plast Custom Moulding, which provides custom blow molding of plastic products and components.