•Clear Path Recycling, LLC (CPR) last month completed the first phase of its new PET recycling facility in Fayetteville, N.C. Phase 1 can recycle up to 160 million lb/yr of PET bottles into flake. CPR is a joint venture of carpet maker Shaw Industries Group, Inc. and PET resin supplier DAK Americas LLC (dakamericas.com), both of which will use the flake from CPR in their products.
•Meanwhile, this past summer, MVR, a supplier of recycled PP, PS, LDPE, LLDPE, and HDPE pellets based in Boca Raton, Fla. (mvrecycling.com), opened a new recycling plant in Frankfort, Ky. It can sort, wash, and pelletize 90 million lb/yr.
•Leigh Fibers, Inc., Wellford, S.C. (leighfibers.com), reportedly the largest fiber recycler in North America, established this past fall a dedicated business unit to divert used carpet from landfills and turn it into fibers and densified “agglomerate” ready for use by plastic molders. Leigh Carpet & Plastics Recycling, LLC in Spartanburg, S.C., can reclaim more than 100 million lb/yr of used carpet. The new venture is already reprocessing the most common carpet fibers—nylon 6 and 66, PP, and PET.
•HPC Industries LLC, Los Angeles, a holding company active in plastics packaging, recently established a recycling venture, CarbonLITE Industries LLC. It will open a 220,000-ft2 plant in Riverside, Calif., by around mid-year to turn PET bottles into bottle-grade pellet and flake. The first-phase capacity will be 100 million lb, which is planned to double by 2012.
