PET recycler UltrePET LLC is licensing technology from Wellman Inc. for making food-grade recycled material.
The Bedford-based company said March 9 it has acquired the rights to all of Shrewsbury, N.J.-based Wellman's technology that has a Food and Drug Administration letter of no objection, the industry term for recycled material of high enough quality to be used in food and beverage packaging.
``This agreement now provides us with the ability to directly market our materials as FDA LNO into any FDA market in the world,'' said UltrePET President Scott Mellen.
Mellen said markets requiring the FDA letter will be important for the firm, although the recycler, which has its plant in Albany, N.Y., wants to remain diversified and sell into other sectors, like sheet and strapping. Interest in food packaging has picked up in recent years with plans by Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo Inc. to use 10 percent recycled content in PET bottles by the end of 2005.
The company, which had 2004 sales of $23 million, has not determined yet whether new capital investment is needed, he said.
