WMI selling recycled PET to Coke
HOUSTON - Waste Management Inc. announced Feb. 13 that it will be supplying some of the recycled PET that Coca-Cola Co. uses in its bottles.
WMI said the material will come from its processing facility near Raleigh, N.C. Houston-based WMI will take curbside material and turn it into PET flake. The flake, however, still must be cleaned and turned into plastic pellets by other, undisclosed, companies before Coke can use it, said Steve Edelson, WMI's director of plastics materials marketing.
The WMI contract is with Southeastern Container Inc., a bottle manufacturing cooperative owned by Coke bottlers. Edelson said WMI is not supplying recycled PET to other Coke bottle-making co-ops. Enka, N.C.-based Southeastern did not return phone calls seeking comment.
Edelson declined to say how much material WMI will be supplying to Southeastern, or if the waste hauler previously had been supplying the Coke system. He described it as a ``multiyear contract.''
WMI can process up to 60 million pounds annually at the plant but is in the midst of expanding capacity to just under 100 million pounds a year, he said. That figure is the amount of material brought in from curbside programs, not the amount of recycled flake that is sold.
WMI plans to move the plant, the former plastics recycler P&R Environmental Industries Inc. in Youngsville, N.C., to Raleigh in six months, Edelson said. The P&R facility is WMI's all-bottles recycling site.
TPI Plastics deal waits on approval
COATICOOK, QUEBEC - TPI Plastics Inc.'s major shareholder hopes to sell the molder of decorative and seasonal products rather than have the firm's trustee, Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton, do a deal.
Don Henderson said he signed a letter of intent to sell the Coaticook-based firm to two undisclosed investors. The deal is contingent on the investors reaching a financing agreement with a bank. They were scheduled to negotiate with a bank on Feb. 15. The deal would then be presented to creditors for approval.
TPI recently filed for bankruptcy protection. A Raymond Chabot representative earlier said his company plans to sell TPI. Officials with the Longueuil, Quebec, accounting and management consulting company were unavailable for comment.
Form Plastics buys Anchor vending biz
ST. LOUIS - Anchor Packaging Inc. has agreed to sell its vending operations to Form Plastics Co. of St. Charles, Ill., for undisclosed terms.
Anchor of St. Louis said the sale would include tooling, inventory and some thermoforming machines. The firm's vending business comprises packaging, lidding film and sealing equipment sold to vending and food-service clients. Anchor wants to focus on core businesses that include polypropylene microwaveable containers and case-ready trays for meat packaging, according to spokeswoman Diana Bowyer.
Form Plastics President Ray Pappas said the operation will complement its existing product line of integrated turnkey systems for rigid, disposable packaging, lidding equipment and lidding films.
Anchor's new president, Jeffrey Wolff, announced the proposed sale Feb. 14. Wolff replaced Robert Vanderselt in late December.