TORONTO - Recently formed SCL Plastics Inc. has won a contract to injection mold containers for the greater Toronto area's waste paper curbside collection program. SCL, based in Brampton, Ontario, about five miles northwest of metro Toronto, will receive C$1.5 million (US$1.1 million) to mold about 370,000 containers this year, said Renee Dello, assistant manager of waste reduction and recycling for Metro Toronto, a government agency that handles all of the greater metropolitan area.
The city has been collecting waste paper for about 10 years and wants to simplify collection. It will offer boxes free to residents and is trying to offset costs by signing up corporate sponsors to advertise on the containers, which will be known as Grey Boxes.
SCL, formed in March 1995, started manufacturing last summer after it bought A-1 Products of Milton, Ontario, which owned the molds for the Blue Box curbside containers, according to Tony Smith, SCL's vice president and general manager. A-1 contracted out molding of the Blue Box, of which about 15 million were molded in the past 10 years for municipal curbside recycling programs in Canada and the United States.
Smith said SCL will mold a large, gray version of the Blue Box with capacity of about 15 gallons. It will make the high density polyethylene container from a blend of 40 percent virgin resin from an undisclosed supplier, and 60 percent post-consumer HDPE supplied by resource Plastics Inc., a Brantford, Ontario, firm that recently restructured to avoid bankruptcy.
Smith estimated it will take two of SCL's presses running flat out to mold for the five-month contract. SCL will begin shipping eh Grey Boxes in June. SCL's A-1 division also molds recycling containers for other North American municipalities. Its custom molding division series industrial, electronics and consumer market.
Simmonds Capital Ltd. of Toronto formed SCL early last year after it acquired plastics equipment and began leasing a plant in Brampton. It bought A-1 in March, began molding in July and moved the A-1 operation to Brampton in September. It since has expanded to seven injection presses, including a 950-ton Mitsubishi machine.