New Berlin, Wis. — Cumberland Granulators is working with customers to track their carbon footprint and nail down numbers showing how in-house scrap recycling aids their sustainability programs.
Cumberland, part of New Berlin-based ACS Group, recently worked with Teel Plastics, a Baraboo, Wis., injection molder and extruder, and recycler KW Plastics of Troy, Ala., to identify specific benefits.
"Sustainability is much more than a buzzword," said Andre Adams, senior product manager at Cumberland, in a news release. "Companies in the plastics industry realize that their future success depends largely on being environmentally responsible and contributing to a circular economy."
The project tracked the reduction of global warming potential in their operations.
Cumberland granulators are used at a range of plastics firms to reduce the size of scrap and make it possible to reuse that material.
"We asked ourselves, 'How can we quantify the direct effect on how grinding and recycling scrap plastics helps the environment as opposed to using additional virgin resin or filling a local landfill with scrap?'" Adams said.