Materials firm Birch Plastics Inc. has added products to meet demand for recycled compounds.
In late 2023, Houston-based Birch began producing compounds based on 100 percent recycled polypropylene, President Rob Lang said in a recent interview with Plastics News. The post-industrial PP compounds can be used in housewares such as cups, bowls and cutlery, as well as in caps.
"We've got a good supply of natural (color) feedstock," Lang said. "We started offering it in late 2023 and early 2024 and really debuted it at NPE.
"Now we're selling about 400,000 pounds per month. Demand is increasing because of sustainability mandates," he added.
Birch also recently replaced an existing extrusion line with a larger single-screw line that can process 2,400 pounds of material per hour. The firm operates four extrusion lines with annual production capacity of 25 million pounds. The business runs on a 24-hour, 5-day production schedule.
Lang said Birch is well set on space after adding 25,000 square feet of warehouse space in early 2022. The firm now has 100,000 square feet of production and storage space.
Earlier this year, Birch received an FDA letter of non-objection (LNO) for all food and cosmetic applications using its 100 percent recycled natural PP materials.
Also in 2022, Birch received GreenCircle certification for its recycled-content compounds. GreenCircle offers third-party certification for sustainability claims.
Birch employs 32 and has annual sales of $17 million.