Romeoville, Ill.-based recycler Parc Corp. USA is shutting down, blaming tough new Chinese import restrictions on plastic recycling scrap.
In a Jan. 19 statement, the company said that the Chinese government's mid-2017 decision to significantly crack down on the quality of imported recyclable materials was making business tough.
"Due to National Sword and China Import Ban, [which has] permanently shut off established business opportunities, ... Parc Corp. closed its business," wrote Parc founder and CEO Kathy Xuan.
Xuan further said the company would be "doing the best to fulfill vendors and customers" and start a new business running a recycling plant with Chinese investors.
The company sent a Jan. 4 letter to creditors stating that "on December 26, 2017, Parc Corp. USA dissolved pursuant to the issuance of a certificate of dissolution by the Secretary of State of Illinois," and giving instructions for creditors to file claims.
Records from that agency say the company filed for "voluntary dissolution" on that day.
The firm also faces a Jan. 31 court hearing in Wisconsin for an eviction from a factory it opened in 2015 in the city of Oshkosh, according to an attorney for the landlord in that case.
As well, Parc has a factory in Qingdao, China. Xuan has been vocal about business difficulties hitting China's recycling industry in general because of the new crackdown on imports of plastics scrap and other recyclables.
The company has said for several months it has been working to set up an industrial park in the United States with Chinese companies to process recyclables in the U.S. and then export cleaner materials to China's factories.
Xuan said in a brief phone interview that she was in China meeting with investment partners: "We are closing the old one and starting a new chapter."
The Wisconsin court case began before China's most recent crackdown on imports.
According to online court records for Winnebago County, Wisconsin, Parc's landlord for the Oshkosh factory, Dowling Investment Assets LLC, began legal proceedings in May 2016.
The court issued a judgment of eviction in January 2017, and Parc vacated the building in October, according to Corrado Cirillo, a Sheboygan, Wis., attorney for Dowling Investment.
The upcoming Jan. 31 court hearing is to determine damages, he said.
Parc opened the Oshkosh factory in January 2015 as part of a business plan to help manufacturers develop a "zero-landfill" strategy, the company said in a news release at that time.
It said it was working with more than 10 manufacturing plants and could process up to 30 million pounds of material there.
Xuan, an industry veteran who started Parc in 1996, has been active in industry groups, serving on the board of the recycling committee of the China Plastics Processing Industry Association.
She also was very involved in starting the Zero Net Waste program in 2016 for the Society of the Plastics Industry, now called the Plastics Industry Association.
A 2016 news release from Washington-based SPI said she was chair of the emerging trends subcommittee on the SPI Recycling Committee and noted her involvement in the zero waste program.
On its website, Parc said the Romeoville factory, near Chicago, has more than 130,000 square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space, and the Qingdao location covers more than 100,000 square feet.
