FAIRFAX, VA. - Environmental Products Corp. will begin a 40 million-pound-per-year, post-consumer PET container recycling line at its Riverside, Calif., separation and sortation facility. The California plant has one PET separation line that grinds waste bottles and separates labels and other plastic containers from PET bottles recovered through the company's reverse vending machines.
The existing separation system would be incorporated in a full wash line producing flake post-consumer PET, and should be operational by the end of the first quarter of 1996, according to Gerald Weis, senior vice president of the company's plastics division. Estimated cost for the addition is $3 million.
The company also has signed a long-term agreement with the Plastics Recycling Corp. of California, a joint venture of major bottlers in the state, which guarantees it a supply of about 30 million pounds of post-consumer bottles per year. In addition to the Riverside facility, the company operates another wash and grinding plant in Fairfax.
Besides the washing and grinding capabilities, Envipco, based in Fairfax, is a leading developer of automated reverse vending machines for the collection of empty beverage containers for recycling. The company operates the machines throughout California and other states. It builds the machines at the Riverside facility and another plant in Naugatuck, Conn.