Myplas could move beyond Minnesota to recycle film

A unique multicorporation approach aimed at kick-starting film recycling in Minnesota now hopes to spur similar action elsewhere in the country.

Production is expected to soon begin at a $24 million recycling facility backed by several companies and operated by Myplas USA Inc. in Rogers, Minn.

The plant has some high-profile backers both in and out of the plastics industry, including film maker Charter Next Generation Inc. and food giant General Mills Inc., all organized through a group called MBOLD.

Myplas USA, a unit of Cape Town, South Africa-based Myplas, is developing the facility in Rogers, about 25 miles from Minneapolis–St. Paul, in an existing 170,000-square-foot building.

The first of the facility's four lines is expected to start ramping up production in late May or early June with a second line coming online in September, according to Andrew Pieterse, CEO of Myplas USA. Lines three and four will follow with an expected started date in September 2024. Altogether, the four lines will have the capacity to handle 90 million pounds of recycled resin annually.

The first lines will handle low density polyethylene and food-grade high density PE. Pieterse said the input into the third and fourth lines has yet to be determined.

"There's been a lot of headwinds, but we've navigated through it," the CEO said, since the project was first announced almost a year ago. Myplas is still on schedule despite factors including rising steel prices, a tight labor market, higher interest rates and supply chain challenges.

Myplas is focused on the Rogers facility, but it also has an eye toward the future and the potential to replicate similar locations elsewhere in the United States.

"We want to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time, bearing in mind the challenges. Putting this thing together took years. I think putting the next one together won't take years once we show it works. That's the focus right now, getting the plant up and running. Once that is proven, we'll grow as fast as we can," Pieterse said.

"Watch this space," he added.

'A shared vision'

While Myplas will ultimately recycle film in Rogers, the project could not have been possible without the work and financial support of several companies and the overall direction of MBOLD, the consortium that's an arm of the Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership. MBOLD's members include companies, researchers and nonprofit groups.

"I think it's really going to be a game-changer in our region for getting more companies and institutions to recycle their film, to do so close to home," MBOLD Managing Director JoAnne Berkenkamp said.

So little film is being recycled these days — about 5 percent of what is manufactured — that she said there needs to be an effort beyond the recyclers to make a bigger difference.

"We know it really takes a whole ecosystem," Berkenkamp said. "It really takes people pulling together in a coordinated fashion. We can't expect the recyclers and the converters to do this alone. So it really takes an united strategy, people coming together around a shared vision.

"If you are a brand, I just got to say, if you want circularity to happen, you need skin in the game. It takes partnership. It takes investment. It takes providing secure supply and demand to make this kind of model work," she said.

Members of MBOLD have operations across the United States, so Berkenkamp sees the potential for those same companies to help replicate the Minnesota model elsewhere. "Our hope is that what we're doing in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest becomes the normal across the United States," she said.

"We need the existing players on the recycling side to grow and thrive and expand and serve new markets. We need new entrants on the recycling side that can do that very sophisticated film recycling and also produce film resin for food-grade applications," she added.

Charter Next Generation is not only investing in the project but also will use recycled resin made by Myplas to make new film products.

When the project was first announced, consumer products companies General Mills Inc. and Schwan's Co. were announced as lead investors along with Charter Next Generation by providing $9.2 million for the project. Target Corp. and Ecolab also were announced as supporting investors, MBOLD said at the time. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Closed Loop Partners, two efforts that help support plastic recycling, provided debt financing.

MBOLD also just announced new participants in the flexible film recycling project: Allina Health, Andersen Corp., Bedford Industries, Dem-Con Cos., GreenForest Recycling Resources, HealthPartners, Hormel Foods, Kraft Heinz Co., Kraus-Anderson, Land O'Lakes Inc., Metropolitan Airports Commission, Midwest Marina Association, Marvin, McGough, Minnesota Grocers Association, M.A. Mortenson Co., Post Consumer Brands and Uponor.