The co-owner of a struggling PET recycling plant has bought a stake in fledgling recycling firm International Recycling Group LLC.
United Resource Recovery Corp. Inc. of Spartanburg purchased “membership interests” in New York-based IRG, according to a March 5 news release. No financial details were provided. IRG claims on its website that by spring 2013 it “will have commissioned the world's largest plastics recycling plant at a first-of-its-kind facility” in the Midwest. IRG officials could not be reached for comment.
URRC operates a recycling plant in Spartanburg through a partnership with Coca-Cola Co. But the plant, operating as NURRC, was closed for six months during 2011 because of operating problems. In October, URRC and Coke said they were restructuring NURRC, including the joint venture pact.
IRG, a unit of New York investment firm GreenSteel LLC, also claims it will be “the first company in the world dedicated to processing and marketing high volumes of alternative fuel for the integrated steel industry, repurposed from plastic scrap that is generally not otherwise marketable for recycling.”