Zeta Consumer Products Corp. has purchased a 225,000-square-foot building in New Jersey, a bag plant closed a year ago by Mobil Chemical Co., in a move that puts the maker of Renew recycled bags closer to major East Coast sources of raw material. ``Right now we get a lot of plastic scrap from the Northeast and ship it to Illinois,'' Zeta President Raj Bal said. ``Having a plant in New Jersey would make it more efficient.'' Zeta's other plant is in Macomb, Ill.
Mobil closed the Washington, N.J., polyethylene bag factory a year ago aspart of a restructuring. Bal said Zeta bought the building and two PE recycling lines from Mobil. Mobil had removed blown film lines, but Bal said the facility has complete infrastructure to make film, including resin silos, rail delivery of resin, power distribution, water treatment and cooling equipment.
Zeta ordered three blown film lines from Battenfeld Glouces-ter Engineering Co. Inc. of Gloucester, Mass. Two other lines are coming from the former Amcel Corp. plant in Emeryville, Calif. Zeta bought the equipment and the business - but not the building - from Amcel in April.
The New Jersey plant gives Zeta two factories and will boost capacity by 50 percent next year, the company said. The plant will have annual recycling capacity of about 25 million pounds. New extrusion capacity will total 35 million pounds, Ball said. Zeta is a subsidiary of Sigma Plastics Group of Lyndhurst, N.J. Sigma affiliates will supply some feedstock for the plant, such as post-consumer laundry and dry cleaning bags, T-shirt bags and stretch film.
In New Jersey, Zeta will make Renew bags, with 100 percent recycled plastic content, and its Stuffers line, introduced in late 1994. The plant also will make private-label and institutional bags.
Bal said the plant will employ about 100 people. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Bal said demand in Northeast urban areas for recycled-content bags has increased. Zeta bags are sold there in major mass merchant and grocery stores.
Zeta has moved all equipment out of the former Amcel bag plant in California, which had been closed by Amcel before the business was sold. Zeta ships bags to California from its main plant in Macomb, through its warehouses in Stockton and Oakland, Calif. Zeta plans to open a plant in the West.
