Thermoformer Direct Pack buys Mexican PET recycler

Direct Pack Inc., an Azusa, Calif.-based packaging thermoformer, has acquired Atmosphera Verde SA de CV, a PET recycler in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The deal will help Direct Pack close the loop and use recycled PET thermoformed containers to make new containers, according to President Craig Snedden.

"We want them back. That's the point. Now we're taking in PET thermoforms," Snedden said in a Feb. 19 telephone interview.

The recycling business is being renamed Direct Pack Recycling. According to DPI, Atmosphera Verde has the capacity to recycle 40 million pounds of PET annually, including post-consumer thermoformed PET. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Thermoformed PET sheet can be tough to recycle because of the difficult-to-separate labels on many containers. Snedden said Atmosphera Verde had a special process that can handle bales of PET with high percentages of thermoformed packaging. Snedden credited Juan Galvan, who started Atmosphera Verde and has now joined Direct Pack Recycling.

"It is all about the strong members of the team that make up DPI," Snedden said. "We've known Juan for a number of years, and we've been impressed with his capabilities as an efficient recycler."

Snedden said DPI's customers are excited about using post-consumer PET thermoforms as a feedstock for their products.

Snedden noted that before the National Sword program, thermoformed PET containers typically were shipped to China to be recycled. In the past year, though, most have been landfilled. Now DPI is working with materials recovery facilities to collect thermoformed containers and send them to Direct Pack Recycling.

"Our approach to working with the material recovery facilities has been an incredible experience," Snedden said. He has personally visited MRFs and pointed out DPI containers in their bales.

"We're able to go into their sorting lines and say, 'Those are our containers; we want them back,'" Snedden said. "MRFs don't see that a lot, presidents of plastics companies visiting and taking ownership of the products that they make. They're fired up about it."

DPI is currently working with six MRFs, and Snedden plans to expand that network.

DPI already has a line of containers with post-consumer content called Bottle Box. But the raw material for those containers was primarily sourced from easier-to-recycle PET bottles.

"If you want to truly be a steward of the industry, you have to know how your product is being handled after it is used," Snedden said.

Through his relationship with MRFs, Snedden said he's become an advocate for making all thermoformed PET packaging easier to recycle. That includes using labels and adhesives that are easy to remove in wash lines.

DPI has three plants that extrude and thermoform sheet. The plants are located in Sun Valley, Calif.; Rockingham, N.C.; and Guadalajara. The company has about 330 employees and makes foodservice, supermarket, produce and processor containers.

DPI started in 2006 and is owned by PMC Global Inc., a a privately held management company founded by Phil Kamins, a longtime plastics industry veteran. PMC Global has a variety of plastics, packaging, chemical, manufacturing and finance businesses. PMC and its subsidiaries employ more than 3,500 worldwide.

Plastics News estimates DPI's annual sales at $230 million.

Snedden credited Kamins for being his mentor and for encouraging DPI's move into plastics recycling.

"He's been really supporting our move into sustainable packaging and recycling," Snedden said. "The financial support of our parent company, and the mentorship of Phil Kamins, has been important to DPI's growth."

Adding in-house recycling fits into DPI's business strategy of offering customers a full menu of services. The company has in- house design and engineering, including a customer center at its headquarters in Azusa, Calif. It also has three tooling plants, plus a close partnership with a tooling supplier in Taiwan.

Having in-house tooling helps DPI bring new products to market quickly, as well as control cost, Snedden said.

"The added link that makes us full circle is the DPR wash facility and our growing relationships with MRFs on a nationwide scale," Snedden said.