Howell, Mich. — Industrial Resin Recycling Inc. has invested $2.3 million to expand its capabilities, increase capacity and break into the post-consumer recycling market.
In the Howell facility, the company has added two different lines for post-industrial automotive materials. One of the lines was relocated from its Piedmont, Ala., plant to add woven materials to this facility. The addition of these lines has increased capacity by 40 percent.
The company has also installed a new MAS twin-screw extruder at its plant in Fowlerville, Mich., increasing capacity by 80 percent while also decreasing energy usage.
The addition of these new machines was supported by Ravago Group, a strategic partner.
Howell-based Industrial Resin Recycling was acquired by Ravago Group in 2016, because of its interest in the compounding side of the company. In 2017, Industrial Resin Recycling bought back the company and kept Ravago Recycling Group as a strategic partner.
Ravago also supplies and buys materials from Industrial Resin Recycling.
The new line allows the company to run post-consumer and post-industrial material. It also will increase efficiency compared with its standard extruder, which can run 1,800 pounds an hour. The new extruder can run 6,000 pounds an hour.
"It helps with efficiency, increases sustainability and everything that the industry is leaning towards right now," said Trevor Houston, sales manager at Industrial Resin Recycling.
Industrial Resin Recycling expects the additions to change its current market and help the company focus on running more material.
"We were working with materials that, some of it, we just couldn't run, like most companies couldn't run it through [their] extruders," said John Sodini, general manager at Industrial Resin Recycling. "It was too heavy with nylon or other materials. And with the capability of the MAS and twin-screw, we can run 30 percent more material."
The screen changer on the front of the machine is continuously removing contaminated material. The equipment allows the company to handle materials with paper, wood or label contamination.
Leading up to the decision of expansion, the company was noticing demand for post-industrial resins was going up and down.
"Now that post-consumer [recycling] is becoming a big thing, there's a lot of post-industrial markets that are actually shrinking," Houston said.
The expectations are to do about 2 million pounds a month on this single machine, increasing the overall plant's capabilities to 3.5 million pounds a month. Currently the company is looking for additional supply to support the growth.
Further expansions are already being considered and the possibility of purchasing another extruder in the future and reduce its carbon footprint and energy even more,
Currently the company is ISO 9001 certified and 40 percent complete with GreenCircle certification. Another addition is its new lab expansions, which allow for more and stronger testing. The company is working toward an A2LA certification.