Increases in the demand for recycled, film-grade plastics have led to a $3 million expansion at Jadcore Inc. The company, which recycles polypropylene, linear low and high density polyethylene and other films, has completed a new, 80,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Terre Haute, Ind., and will add one extrusion line to its existing four when the facility begins operations in April, according to John Doti, president of Jadcore.
The company also operates washing, blending and grinding lines at the new facility and produces about 4 million pounds of recycled pellets per year.
``Our goal is to double our output in the next four years. We have built a good client base over the last 23 years, when we have been one of the few companies recycling plastic films,'' he said.
At a separate location in Terre Haute, the firm also operates washing and grinding lines, and makes blown film that is converted into trash bags and liners in custom colors and sizes.
The company also has 350,000 square feet of warehouse space in Terre Haute. The company has total capacity to process about 65 million pounds per year, and does a wide range of services, including blending and FDA-approved, recycled-content packaging.
``My father founded the company in 1974 after many years in the film and plastics packaging and resin businesses,'' Doti said. ``We saw the future for films, and for the use of recycled plastic in the packaging business, and we have tried to work on that.''
He said that when his father began Jadcore there were very few people interested in recycling plastic films, but that attitude has changed. With greater emphasis being placed on all forms of recycling, and on recycling plastic, more firms are starting to use film scrap, he said.
``We will be blending our materials to make superior packaging materials,'' Doti said. ``We will have four, 250,000-pound silos, two of which are retrofitted to allow for blending resin, and we will maintain our complete physical testing lab that works in conjunction with our two custom and toll compounding lines.''
Doti said the company is so firmly committed to film recycling that $50,000 has been donated in honor of the firm's founder, James Doti, to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kan., to establish the James A. Doti Plastics Technology scholarship. PSU is one of only two universities in the country that will offer an accedited bachelor of science degree in plastics engineering technology, and is completing a new technology center, due to open in 1997. The scholarship will be available to students in the fall semester of this year.
