YOUNGSVILLE, N.C. - P&R Environmental Industries Inc., a plastics bottle recycler based in Youngsville, is expanding production and may open an out-of-state plant. The expansion, to be completed by September, should increase the plant's production by 750,000 pounds per month, bringing the monthly total to as much as 2.5 million pounds, according to President Gary Pratt.
The firm now processes about 1.6 million pounds per month at the 50,000-square-foot plant.
P&R will expand production by installing a new automatic sorting line of its own design in former warehouse space.
In June, the firm opened a 15,000-square-foot warehouse in an adjacent leased building built to its specifications.
The company expects to boost its work force from 50 to 70 as a result of the project, Pratt said. He declined to comment on the cost of the expansion or to provide annual sales figures.
P&R sorts and granulates post-consumer plastic bottles by resin, type and color.
``The bottles come from Canada all the way down to Florida,'' Pratt said. ``Our collection area is anywhere east of the Mississippi.''
The bottles are reduced to ``dirty regrind'' and sold to processing companies that convert it into pellets and fiber.
The firm plans to expand even more in the months to come.
``By next year we could be processing as much as 4 million pounds per month,'' Pratt said.