Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies Inc. plans to issue as much as $15 million dollars in industrial revenue bonds next month to expand its Springdale, Ark., plant, and to add a larger plant and 150 employees.
The funds will go toward doubling AERT's polyethylene recycling capacity and tripling composite extrusion capacity. It now operates four extrusion lines in its 103,000-square-foot plant.
AERT plans to expand in phases, eventually adding 18 acres and another 120,000-square-foot plant.
The Springdale plant is being expanded for several reasons.
``It is more centrally located to the waste streams and our customer base,'' AERT President Joe Brooks said in a telephone interview. ``We're introducing a new generation of decking and the plant is strategically located to take the product east and west.''
AERT recycles PE and wood chips and makes composite lumber for the door and window, industrial flooring, and residential and commercial decking markets. It had produced decking solely at its Junction, Texas, plant. That plant's capacity is sold out to Weyerhauser Co., based in Tacoma, Wash., Brooks said.
Weyerhauser markets AERT's ChoiceDek brand decking product to retail home centers.
``Our goal for the decking is to ramp this product up to $50 million in annualized sales,'' Brooks said.
The Springdale plant, which is also AERT's headquarters, will produce decking and other lumber products for original equipment manufacturers. Brooks declined to reveal the number of lines to be added at the plant.
AERT also sells its products to Detroit-based General Motors Corp. and Lowes Co., headquartered in North Wilkesboro, N.C.