Moore Diversified Industries Inc. owner Larry Moore said Jan. 4 he will not rebuild his fire-devastated plastics recycling business.
His decision is based on ``old age and the fact that it is not a contract business - I do not have contracts with my customers,'' the 61-year-old said in a recent telephone interview.
``It would be six to eight months to get back to where I was, and by then the customers will have found someone else.''
The cause of the early morning Dec. 24 blaze in Pemberville, Ohio, was not determined in the fire report, Moore said.
Moore has been involved in the recycling business since 1983 and is sorry to be leaving, he said. He runs a restaurant and some other small enterprises, but the recycling plant was his main business. He said the loss was more than $500,000 and insurance covered only some of the cost. Two employees also are out of work.
The company recycled on a toll basis, mostly handling high density polyethylene. He said he designed the wash line.
Moore called his company a pioneer in plastics recycling because it was not recycling material as a source of raw material for his own production.
``When I started ... there were some companies doing it in-house, but not commercially,'' Moore said.
The company got its start when he designed an automated recycling system for Owens-Illinois Inc.
Instead of selling the line to O-I, he agreed to handle the work for O-I.
``I don't know what I will do next, but I plan to get out of recycling,'' he said.
