WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Distributor PolyQuest Inc. has purchased a recycling facility in East Farmingdale, N.Y., to produce recycled PET flake for food-contact applications.
The plant, operated by PolyQuest's newly-formed affiliate PQ Recycling LLC, will produce flake primarily from post-consumer PET bottles collected in the northeastern United States through bottle deposit return systems.
PolyQuest acquired the plant and assets from Pure Tech Recycling LLC.
Pure Tech, an affiliate of Chicago-based Re:Think Recycling Group LLC, ended production and began searching for a buyer last year, several months after being sued by Coca-Cola Co. for breach of contract.
The suit, filed in March 2012 in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, claimed that Pure Tech did not pay the principal on a $3 million loan from Coca-Cola Financial Corp. and that the company owed $1.99 million, plus interest, to Coca-Cola Recycling LLC.
In October, the court denied a motion filed by Pure Tech to dismiss the suit.
PolyQuest will use the flake as feedstock for downstream PET processing applications at the company's recycling facility in Darlington, S.C., according to a company news release.
The plant will produce PET pellets approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for all PET applications, including bottles, sheet, strapping, fiber and filament, said Tod Durst, president of packaging resins for PolyQuest, in the release.
Durst declined requests for additional comment.
PolyQuest, based in Wilmington, N.C., bills itself as the largest distributor of PET resins in North America and one of the fastest growing recyclers in the United States.
