Success Stories

MRI Success Story

Entropex – Transforming plastics recycling

Today, 40 per cent of the plastic packaging we use ends up in landfills. A small Sarnia company is working to change that.

Entropex has been recycling plastic since 1978, starting with plastic waste produced by industry. In 1985, when Ontario introduced the Blue Box program, Entropex pioneered consumer bottle recycling.

Now, it’s taking plastics recycling to the next level.

“We call it rigid plastic remade,” says Entropex president Keith Bechard.

In a nutshell, Entropex’s RigidReclaim technology takes previously unrecyclable ‘rigid’ plastic – mostly food containers not included in most municipal Blue Box programs – sorts them and then converts them back to high quality plastic resins which can be used by manufacturers and consumers over and over again.

“Our technology makes it possible to recover 80 per cent more plastic than we recover today,” says Bechard.

Beginning in the fall of 2011, the company’s new rigid plastics recovery facility – the first of its kind in North America – will be up and running. The $30 million plant, which is receiving $4 million from the Government of Ontario through the Innovation Demonstration Fund, will process 30,000 tonnes (66 million pounds) of waste plastic a year.

In the process, it will create green jobs – including 90 at Entropex’s new facility – reduce landfill costs and provide a new source of plastic that manufacturers all over North America can use.

So far, more than 30 municipalities across Ontario have signed on to expand their Blue Box programs to include more rigid plastics and send them to Sarnia for recycling.

How has Entropex been able to establish itself as a North American leader in plastics recycling?

“The Ontario government’s public policy commitment to the Blue Box program over the past 30 years has been key,” says Bechard. “It’s pushed us to stay innovative.”

“We’ve also benefited from the research expertise we access through Ontario universities and the Ontario Centres of Excellence, Ontario’s exceptional R&D tax credits and financial support from the provincial government through the Innovation Demonstration Fund and the Government of Canada through Sustainable Development Technology Canada.”

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See also:

• News Release: Ontario Invests in Innovation, Creates 90 New Jobs