PET recycler Circularix to open second Florida plant

Fernandina Beach, Fla. — On the heels of opening the company's first PET recycling facility in Pennsylvania, Circularix LLC expects a second site to begin operations in just a matter of months.

Three more will be coming in rapid succession after that.

Circularix Chief Operating Officer Alex Delnik is now revealing the second site is in Ocala, Fla., where the company already has a building, ordered recycling equipment and is awaiting delivery.

"Our second plant is going to be in Florida, actually not far from here," Delnik said at the recent Packaging Conference in Fernandina Beach, near Jacksonville. "And it's expected to start production probably late summer. It's going to be followed by plants with a frequency of about five to six months. So we expect our roll-out to be completed by the end of 2024, maybe early 2025, that we'll have the full capacity."

Circularix plans to build an initial network of five recycled PET flake-to-pellet reprocessing facilities around the country. Delnik said other locations will be in the Pacific Northwest, the West Coast and Texas. Full capacity for the five plants will amount to the production of 275 million pounds of food-grade recycled PET pellets annually.

"That is our initial plan. It may be more, but for now we're content to develop these plants and operate them efficiently because that's what we know how to do. Operating efficiency is the key word in any commodity-based business," he said.

Exact locations for future plans are still under consideration, and Delnik declined to discuss specific potential sites. A graphic he presented at the conference indicates a West Coast site could begin production during the first quarter of 2024, a Texas site during the second quarter of 2024 and a Pacific Northwest location during the fourth quarter of 2024.

The timing of opening each location could change based on the needs of customers, which have not been revealed by Circularix.

"We can't say. We can't identify particular sites in those locations. We just identify by areas and even sequence is still something we can modify," he said.

Circularix was founded by PET recycling veterans Delnik, who previously created Verdeco Recycling Inc., and Leon Farahnik, who previously operated CarbonLite Holdings LLC. The company is a joint venture between HPC Industries LLC and Macquarie Group, a publicly traded financial services company based in Australia that has experience in environmental investments.

Delnik said the company is relying on past experience to inform current decisions.

"We use Starlinger technology for all of our plants. That's one of the things I should have mentioned is that we are not technology innovators. We prefer to use technology that has been proven. We have experience operating Starlinger lines. We know how to do it. For us, we are concentrating on operational excellence, operational efficiency."

That's important in a commodity business where price matters, he said.

Circularix also is heavily relying on technology to help with costs and quality control.

"All routine tasks are automated. We have complete control over the process. We have automated quality controls. It allows us to concentrate on proper feedback and looping back and making changes to the process when we believe it's needed," he said.

"[Recycled] PET production is one of the most complex types of manufacturing. It's very complex. The reason it's complex is because you have variable feedstock," Delnik said. "It's natural variation no matter how good you are at providing flake."

"I think part of the automation that is absolutely critical is having control of the process," he said.

Delnik also indicated the company would look at expanding to international locations if there is demand.