CHICAGO - Marco Polo International Inc. is adding to its scrap washing and grinding capabilities in Houston. Paul Laudadio, vice president of the New York-based resin trading and recycled resin compounder, said the firm is adding a washing and grinding line at one of its three plants in Houston that should be operational in 60 days.
``The facility will handle primarily engineering resin scrap, but will also be able to accommodate the commodity resins, too,'' Laudadio said at Plastics USA in Chicago. ``We are finding that recycling post-industrial scrap is becoming more and more popular with companies.''
Laudadio would not say what the new wash/grind line's capacity will be, but did say it complements the firm's other two plants in Houston. One washes, grinds and blends post-industrial commodity olefins, while the other does the same for engineering grades.
The new line simply will wash and grind and can be cleaned before changing from engineering to commodity resins to prevent mixing.
``What we are really looking for is packagers who have one-way package materials that they would have to landfill,'' Laudadio said. ``We think that we can help them avoid the cost of having to dispose of the materials at the end of its useful life, and could even give them a profit on it. We are doing an awful lot of polypropylene, and, of course, polycarbonate and ABS are very much in demand right now.''
Since starting into the near-prime resin compounding and collection business last year, Laudadio said Marco Polo has built a steady flow from North America. It has four domestic plants and two overseas to process post-industrial scrap.
