Perpetual Recycling Solutions to open a food-grade rPET recycling facility

Perpetual Recycling Solutions plans to open a $30 million food-grade rPET recycling facility in Richmond, IN. The plant will produce more than 110 million pounds of rPET flake annually for customers throughout the U.S.

The company is a manufacturer of post-consumer recycled PET (rPET) resin, which currently serves the plastic packaging industry from its affiliated company, Pure Tech Plastics, in New York.

Perpetual Recycling will begin repurposing a 100000-sq-ft facility in mid-February. The building will become one of the largest recycling facilities of its kind, making Perpetual Recycling Solutions the largest producer of food grade rPET Flake in North America, according to the company.

Perpetual Recycling CEO David Bender, told PlasticsToday the plant will fill a void in the recycling chain by turning PET recycled bottles and thermoforms into food grade flake. Fortune 500 customers have already committed to purchase product from the Richmond facility.

"There is a strong need for the use of food grade recycled content in packaging," he said. "We are helping brand owners to fulfill sustainable commitments they made and expand their efforts."

The facility will get its materials from deposit raw material and curbside collection. The company's plan is to hire about 55 employees, and the facility is on target to open its doors in December 2012.

In addition, Perpetual Recycling plans to open an education center, which will be accessible to area students and industry professionals to learn about plastic recycling.

"Students will be able to learn about plastic recycling, where they can bring water bottles or strawberry containers and see it put back into a material that will make a new package," Bender said. "We're pretty excited about that."

Bender said he hopes the facility will inspire other companies to use recycled content, especially because more consumers are requesting sustainable packaging alternatives.

"The customer, and ultimately the consumer, want to know that the brands they purchased are being environmentally sensitive," he said. "There are many different ways of being green, and the use of recycled content is clearly the best as defined by environmental groups."