Nova's Indiana plant ‘a push to prove' film recycling works

Connersville, Ind. — The future of mechanical recycling is taking shape in Connersville.

That's where Nova Chemicals has opened a major plastic film recycling plant that will produce 150 million pounds of post-consumer recycled polyethylene resin per year. Nova hosted a media tour at the site on Feb. 27.

"This is a key growth area for us," Nova CEO Roger Kearns said in an interview with Plastics News in Connersville. "It's a push to prove that film recycling, which isn't easy to do, can be taken all the way through to food applications.

"We've tried to make this site one of the largest and most sophisticated film recycling plants in world. It's a large plant making premium quality products. That will allow us to come back and help our customers not just transform plastic into something, but transform it back into something that's really highly valuable," he said.

The plant occupies about one-third of a 1.5 million-square-foot building that previously was an automotive plant operated by Ford Motor Co. and then by Visteon Corp. The plant had been mostly vacant since 2008, according to Mechanical Recycling Director Alan Schrob.

The auto plant "was a major employer to Connersville and the surrounding county, so we're glad to be able to bring some jobs back," Schrob said. The recycling plant is expected to employ 125.

The plant primarily is recycling linear low density PE pallet wrap from distribution centers operated by major retailers in the region. Most of the pallet wrap being used by the plant previously would have gone to landfills, Kearns said. Nova officials said the site is in "a central location" not far from Columbus, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Louisville and other sizable metro areas.

While Nova owns the plant and the technology being used there, the site will be operated by Novolex Holdings, a major plastics packaging maker that has been a Nova customer for many years. Novolex also will be sourcing some of the Syndigo-brand recycled PE resin made by the plant.

At the media event, Novolex CEO Stan Bikulege said that, through the recycling plant, his firm "has a unique and special relation with Nova, one that we're proud to be part of."

Novolex has operated its own recycling operations for many years. "We're so excited about the opportunity to have a facility like this," Bikulege said. "It's a tremendous opportunity to make a difference. It's a testament to the commitment from our firms and a huge step forward. A lot of people didn't think we could do this."

Novolex is one of North America's largest plastics processors. The Charlotte, N.C.-based firm ranks as North America's sixth-largest film supplier, with sales of more than $1.4 billion in 2023, and the region's 10th-largest thermoformer, with sales of almost $700 million, according to PN data.

In December, Novolex announced a deal to acquire fellow packaging giant Pactiv Evergreen Inc. for $6.7 billion. That move combined two firms with deep plastics portfolios, including bags, film, thermoforms and containers. Pactiv is North America's largest thermoformer with $3.6 billion in annual sales, according to PN, and as the region's 44th largest film producer.

Other companies with arrangements in place to use recycled PE resin made in Connersville include packaging firms Amcor plc, food service supplier Winpak Inc. and McCain Foods, a supplier of frozen and prepared foods.

The first of the Nova plant's four lines began operating in late January. All four are expected to be up and running in early 2026. "We're trying to create an infrastructure that doesn't create waste," Kearns said. "We can go from bales to pellets. The key part is to take material out of landfills."

"It's our mission to be the leading post-consumer recycler in the country," Nova Circular Solutions Vice President Greg DeKunder said.

Calgary-based Nova already is looking to add additional recycling plants in other parts of North America that have "good sources of clean feedstock," according to Kearns. Building out the Connersville plant took about 24 months, including six months for engineering work.

The Connersville site has a full rail siding, allowing recycled content PE made at the site to be shipped out in rail cars. Officials said most of the plant's output will be delivered by that method, although some will be delivered in boxes.

The plant receives truckloads of "clean and clear film" every day, Schrob said, amounting to 12 million pounds of film to be recycled per month. Any colored film or film made from other resins that the plant receives is sorted out and recycled at other locations.

Most work done at the plant is automated, including circular saws that cut off the metal bands that hold the bales of film scrap together. The material then is shredded, with magnets taking out any metal from the feed stream.

Optical sorters next remove any non-clear material from the stream. The scrap is then washed to eliminate any residual contamination. Water used in that process is treated at a local water treatment plant.

At the end of the recycling process, the material is pelletized and placed into silos before being shipped out to customers who will use the recycled content PE to make can liners or other food contact or non food contact products.

In June, Nova received a letter of nonobjection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration confirming the capability of its mechanical recycling process in Connersville to make post-consumer LLDPE resins that are suitable for broad food-contact applications.

Nova officials previously said customers in North America will be able to use Nova's recycled LLDPE to make food packaging with up to 100 percent recycled content intended for contact with all food types under the FDA's conditions. The firm has developed a range of processes and procedures to validate and test that the feedstock it is using meets the requirements of the LNO.

In June, Schrob said that "meeting the rigorous standards of the FDA for the broadest food contact applications is a testament to the innovative design of our mechanical recycling facility as well as the diligence we take regarding chain of custody of the plastic film feedstock."

The Connersville plant is a big step for mechanical recycling, but Schrob said "there's a place" for both mechanical and advanced/chemical recycling in the plastics market, and that Nova is involved in both methods.

"There's a lot of film available for mechanical recycling," he added. "Scale is important, as is the ability to repeat the process." DeKunder added that Nova's mechanical recycling technology "is here now and it's scalable."