DevTech Labs moves, forms insulation firm
AMHERST, N.H. — DevTech Labs Inc. has a new home, and recently formed a joint venture with a Canadian company to develop building insulation from recycled PET.
The Amherst-based company does research and engineering for the PET industry. The firm develops new processes and manufactures products ranging from prototype runs to market-trial quantities.
It moved from 11,000 square feet to a 31,000-square-foot plant in August. The company invested about $1.5 million in the move, machinery installation and the building, which was designed for the firm.
The facility operates three injection molding and four stretch blow molding machines, and the company intends to add more equipment next year, said Martin Beck, DevTech's president and founder.
The joint venture, with Inzeco Holdings Inc. of Etobicoke, Ontario, is developing an insulation product called Greensulate. DevTech is the majority shareholder in the venture, and will participate in Greensulate's development and commercial scale-up.
The venture's first commercial products will be produced early next year.
Inzeco recently raised $300,000 through an initial public offering, and it is in the process of buying E2 Development Corp., a private Toronto-based company. E2D was formed in 1991 and developed value-added insulation applications from recycled PET.
E2D has invested about $3.5 million since its inception in the technology, and has had a prototype machine making PET insulation material.
In the next year, the joint venture plans to design and test a machine capable of producing 110 pounds of the insulation per hour, enough for one home per day.
Phase three will be the launch of a commercial facility with capacity of 4,400 pounds per hour.
RecyTrade Web site pulls global response
BRUSSELS, BELGIUM — An Internet plastics recycling exchange set up more than a year ago by Europe's plastics processors has attracted huge response from around the globe.
So says the processors' umbrella organization, European Plastics Converters, which established RecyTrade (http://www. recytrade.com), a cyberspace market for sale and purchase of recyclable plastics, out of its Brussels headquarters.
Use of the Web site continues to build. The organization pointed out that, although August is traditionally a vacation month in Europe, it showed the greatest response on the exchange with 17,000 applications. Not every application results in a business transaction.
Some 28 percent of the total users are in Germany, while U.S. users come in second with a 9 percent share. They are followed by Dutch, Belgian, British, Italian and French users.
Others include users from India, Canada, Hong Kong, South Korea, Mexico and Australia, with each of those locations representing 2-3 percent of the total, according to EuPC.
EuPC President Joachim Eckstein said the organization was surprised by the huge demand for recyclable plastic.
``The number of requests on the market has reached similar levels to that of offers,'' Eckstein said.
Eckstein said that the RecyTrade market will continue to be offered free as long as more sponsors and advertisers are found to maintain low costs.
Texas man wins home in recycling giveaway
WASHINGTON — As part of a contest to promote America Recycles Day, groups that organized the event have given a $200,000 home made from recycled materials to Robert Portillo of Fort Hood, Texas.
Portillo won a drawing for the three bedroom, 21/2-bath home, built primarily with recycled materials ranging from aluminum siding, wood polymer decking and PET carpeting.
Second prize, a trip to Disney World, went to Kyle Harvey of Columbia, S.C.
The drawing was held as part of 3,000 celebrations nationwide Nov. 15 to raise consumer awareness about buying recycled-content products.
