Industrial plastics recycler Coll Materials LLC is doubling the washing and granulating capacities at its Zanesville, Ohio, plant, adding extruders so it can make pellets, and expanding geographically with the addition of a second plant in the Southwest in the next two months.
“We have invested $8 million in the last two months,” said Brian Coll, CEO of the family-owned business that he started in the basement of his home three years ago. “People may have thought of us as a one-location, family-owned business, but we intend to be a significant player in polyethylene recycling in the United States.”
Coll said a second wash line was added in October at the company's 150,000-square-foot plant in Zanesville. The line will double the plant's washing capacity to 50 million pounds when it is at full capacity at the end of the year. It also had added a dual-shaft shredder that has doubled the throughput of its granulating line.
In addition, three 8-inch extruders are being installed that will give Coll Materials the ability to repelletize 40 million pounds annually, he said.
“We previously only sold flake,” Coll said. “This allows us to expand our customer base because some customers only want pellets.”
“The new equipment and upgrades in technology and engineered systems will allow us to become more efficient in manufacturing, allowing us to process more material for our customers and giving us the freedom to buy in larger quantities,” said Bob Morrow, vice president of operations.
The new $5.5 million plant in the Southwest “will be in full production by the end of the year. We already have the equipment bought and it is ready to be shipped.”
Coll did not disclose the location of the Southwest plant. He said it will be similar in size to Zanesville and will have two wash lines, three extruders to make pellets, four granulator lines, seven silos for materials storage, and rail access.
The Southwest plant will produce different grades of high density PE, polypropylene, ABS and other resins, and also will make post-consumer HDPE pellets.
Coll expects that “feedstock out of Mexico will be in abundance for us” at the plant because of existing relationships Coll Materials has with auto manufacturers.
“Recycling is a regional business,” Coll said. “This allows us to provide recyclers with a steady flow of materials west of the Mississippi and save our customers freight costs” they would incur to ship their feedstock to the Zanesville plant. The plant also will expands the buying region for Coll to west of the Mississippi.
“This is an industry of opportunity, if managed properly,” said Coll, a former plant manager at thermoformer Fabri-Form Co. in New Concord, Ohio, and operations manager in Richmond, Ind., for pallet, tray and container manufacturer TriEnda LLC.
Coll said the workforce in Zanesville will increase to 112 from 62 with the addition of 25 employees this year and 25 more in the first quarter of 2011. He said he expects the Southwest plant to ramp up to a workforce of 111 during the next 18 months.