Fix-Corp International Inc., a young but expansion-minded HDPE recycler, plans to open facilities in California and Florida, and expand its Heath, Ohio, plant.
``In addition to [high density polyethylene] recycling, 1998 will be the year that we begin manufacturing value-added end-user products such as plastic pallets and shipping bins, as well as recovering motor oil bottles,'' Mark Fixler, president, chairman and chief financial officer, said in a news release.
The company has not disclosed where in California and Florida the plants will be located, however they will be part of the Fixcor Industries Inc. subsidiary. They are scheduled to start production in the third quarter of next year.
The firm ordered a 750-ton injection press for making pallets for the California plant while the Florida facility will receive a 1,000-ton injection machine. The press will produce large bins for materials handling in addition to pallets.
Each of the plants, as well as the Heath plant, will operate a pallet molding machine.
``These areas [Florida and California] are centers of recycling and heavy shipping areas,'' spokesman Bill Buckholtz said in a telephone interview from the company's headquarters in Beachwood, Ohio.
Fix-Corp won a research grant from the Integrated Waste Management Board of California, which convinced the firm to open a plant there, Buckholtz said.
In conjunction with receiving the $257,000 grant, the company teamed with AlliedSignal Inc.'s federal manufacturing and technologies unit to separate motor oil from HDPE containers.
The agreement calls for six motor oil container recovery units to be set up nationwide for the purpose of landfill cleanup, plastic container recycling and motor oil recovery. Fix-Corp expects to set up the first two miniunits for oil bottle recovery and processing in California by the end of the second quarter of next year.
``This is a direct result of the grant,'' Buckholtz said, referring to the miniunits.
``AlliedSignal already had done the research and had a patent on the process. We'll use the money from the grant to get the process up and running and into the material recovery facilities and get them going,'' he said.
The miniunits will produce clean HDPE flake and oil. The flake then will be shipped to the Heath plant for further cleaning and eventually will end up at the firm's pallet-molding subsidiary, Palletech Inc.
Next year also will see two more HDPE processing lines added to the three operating now at the Heath plant.
The facility will remain the recycling and processing center for the firm. In addition, the plant sits on 10 acres that could support additional buildings for sorting lines and warehousing.
Pallets will wholesale for about $20 and the bins will range from $135-$150.
