AlliedSignal awards license to Fix-Corp
BEACHWOOD, OHIO—Fix-Corp International Inc. has signed a worldwide licensing agreement with a business unit of AlliedSignal Inc. to separate motor oil from high density polyethylene containers.
The agreement was announced Sept. 30. In June, Fix-Corp of Beachwood, Ohio, received a $257,000 research grant from the Integrated Waste Management Board of California to help develop a solution for recycling HDPE motor oil containers.
AlliedSignal's Federal Manufacturing & Technologies unit has a patent pending on a process for this type of recycling, and approached Fix-Corp.
``This will add $14 million to $17 million in revenue annually,'' Bill Buckholtz, head of company relations, said by telephone. ``It's a wonderful opportunity, from the financial aspect.''
Fix-Corp's next step is to develop an infrastructure for collecting the containers and transporting them to its Fixcor Industries Inc. subsidiary's Heath, Ohio, plant. To start, it will collect the bottles in California, grind them locally and ship the flake to Ohio.
At first the company will sell the repelletized HDPE. Eventually, the firm's Palletech Inc. subsidiary will use the pellets to make pallets. Palletech is expected to begin operating by the first of the year.
``There are approximately 2 billion motor oil containers being deposited annually in United States landfills alone,'' Mark Fixler, Fix-Corp chairman and chief executive officer, said in a news release. ``Each container has approximately 1 ounce of residue remaining on the inside surface,'' he said.
``Approximately 250 million pounds of HDPE and in excess of 15 million gallons of recovered motor oil will now become available for recycling annually.''
The firm estimates the recovered plastic is worth 15 cents a pound and the oil $4 a gallon.
Fixcor invested $200,000 recently to add a sorting line and 57,000 square feet of space in Heath. The recycling plant plans to bring its third line into production this year, adding two people per shift to its staff of 70.
Firm makes toilet base with recycled plastic
MINNEAPOLIS — Satellite Industries Inc. of Minneapolis makes a recycled plastic base for its portable restrooms as an alternative to wood bases or plastic bases made from virgin materials.
The recycled base consists of 96 percent commingled, post-consumer polyolefins. The injection molded part fits the Maxim 2000, Tufway and Poly-Plus models.
``It's extremely durable and costs substantially less than the traditional plastic base,'' said Todd Hilde, Satellite's executive vice president. ``Also, the base makes use of plastic waste that otherwise would have gone to a landfill.''
It is heavier than the customary hollow plastic bases, reducing the chance of tip-overs in strong winds. In addition to being abrasion- and moisture-resistant, the recycled plastic base will not rot and can be recycled.
Dow manager pushes for source reduction
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA — Australia's plastics and chemicals industries need to follow North America's lead and implement source reduction strategies rather than focusing on waste recycling, said Tony Kingsbury, environment business development manager for Dow Plastics of Midland, Mich.
Kingsbury said source reduction measures are cheaper to implement than recycling strategies. He spoke at the Australian Plastics & Chemicals Industry Association annual conference, held Sept. 6-9 in Gold Coast.
``We, as an industry, need to be more proactive with our source reduction and conservation of resources messages,'' he said. ``There is information on the shelf that we need to get out into our stakeholders' hands.''
Source reduction involves designing and manufacturing goods and packaging with a long life, minimum toxicity and minimum materials.
Glass, rather than plastic packaging, offers the greatest motivation for source reduction, since glass manufacturing ``uses a tremendous amount of energy,'' Kingsbury said.
Flexible plastic packaging already offers an efficient form of source reduction. For example, the plastic flexible packaging for Friskies Go-Cat cat food in North America weighs one-third the amount of a comparable cardboard box, but holds twice as much product.
APC to monitor funds for technical support
WASHINGTON — The American Plastics Council has decided not to make wholesale changes in its Technical Assistance Program, but it will begin to target the program's spending.
TAP, which provides recycling assistance to communities by using consultants scattered around the country, had been under review by APC officials. The program now will be managed by Barbara Halpin, who had been a manager of environmental affairs for the National Soft Drink Association.
APC decided against putting a full-time technical staff in the field because its consultants have the expertise and credibility, said Roger Bernstein, vice president of state government affairs for the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. and the American Plastics Council, both in Washington.
But the program will target spending to key areas to increase plastics recycling and ``get the kind of attention we feel we deserve,'' Bernstein said.
Sierra to retrofit lines for Korean Recycling
ASHLAND, VA. — Sierra Plastic Technologies Inc. has a contract to retrofit 12 recycling lines for the South Korean government.
The Ashland-based firm has been working with overseas companies for five years and has sold equipment to companies in Japan, Thailand and South Korea. Its latest venture will recycle high density polyethylene film used in agricultural operations.
Korean Recycling Resources is a government-owned recycling system with plants throughout the country. It cleans, washes, densifies and extrudes the film into pellets. The pellets are sold to South Korean processors.
Paul Vanderpool, vice president of sales for Sierra, said the current equipment at Korean Recycling Resources is not producing well in part because the steel used in the granulators and extruders cannot withstand contaminants. The HDPE film picks up sand and dirt and is degraded partially by the sun. As a result, the equipment that was to produce 4,000 pounds of plastic per hour was running at 400 pounds per hour.
South Korea will spend $500,000 to $1 million in each of the 12 plants to replace, rearrange or add new equipment.
In addition, Koie Business Systems of Tokyo has placed an order for a PET recycling line from Sierra, Vanderpool said.
