East Coast Recycling Associates has been able to expand its mixed post-consumer plastics bottling recycling operations to include collecting and processing scrap vinyl.
The company, headquartered in Millville, N.J., focused primarily on HDPE and PET plastic bottles when it first began operating. The company was assisted in the growth of its vinyl recycling operations by the Vinyl Institute, which has helped fund a number of recycling projects in the country.
When the company decided to provide its customers with increased services, ECRA and the Vinyl Institute began a technical cooperation program to increase the recyclability of post-consumer PVC bottles.
The technology resulted in a commercial production line capable of reducing the PVC flake to a powder. ECRA also applied for a patent for the technology allowing PVC bottles to be reused in vinyl flooring and composites.
From there the company has expanded to handling vinyl building scrap.
East Coast Recycling recycles both post-industrial and post-consumer PVC, PET, and HDPE. According to the VI, about 80 percent of the company’s revenue comes from PVC recycling.
The company was formerly known as Wheaton Plastics Recycling, a division of Wheaton Industries.