Revital Polymers looking to increase inflow of blue-box black plastic; market remains strong
Recycled black plastic used to manufacture products such as new automobile parts and household goods like containers and shelving
ReVital Polymers Inc., one of Canada's largest plastics recycling companies, located in Sarnia, Ontario, says that black plastics collected in recycling programs are an important resource and feedstock for its recycling business. ReVital's customers use recycled black plastic to manufacture products such as new automobile parts and household goods like containers and shelving.
ReVital is Canada's first recycling plant that combines a Container Recovery Facility and a Plastics Recovery Facility under one roof. The process of transforming incoming mixed plastic bales into recycled plastic pellets takes less than 25 minutes to complete. ReVital plans to expand the range of materials it accepts from recycling programs next year. Clients in the household goods, construction and automotive sectors purchase ReVital's recycled plastic pellets to make a range of new products.
"No one I know thinks it's right to use a plastic product or package once and then send it to the landfill," said Keith Bechard, ReVital's Chief Commercial Officer. "In Ontario alone, about 1,405 tonnes of black plastics are generated annually. That would fill more than 70 transport trucks parked end-to-end stretching for 1.7 kilometers. That is a significant amount of valuable material and that's why we invested in the technology to recover black plastics."
Bechard said recent Toronto media reports claiming that black plastic trays and containers are unrecyclable have caused great confusion for the public, not just in Ontario but across Canada.
"The Toronto media reports were specific to that community's recycling program and their recycling service provider," he said. "The City and their service provider's limitations are not reflective of the rest of the recycling industry in Ontario and Canada."
In fact, municipalities across the province of Ontario and beyond, including Ottawa, Kingston, Durham and Windsor, have been shipping mixed plastics to ReVital's 188,000-square-foot plastics recycling operation since it opened in February 2017.
Bechard said the market for black recycled plastics is strong.
"In fact, we turn most of these high value materials into customized and highly engineered resins that are tailored to specific customer end-use applications. This customized approach ensures ReVital improves recovery rates for end-of-life products and packaging, extends material value and utility, and allows our automotive and consumer household product customers to manufacture new products that incorporate recycled content," he said.
As a clean technology company, ReVital Polymers Inc. is contributing to Ontario's transition to a circular and low carbon economy. Opened in 2017 and centrally located in Sarnia, Ontario, ReVital is the first facility in Canada, and one of the newest and most advanced recovery facilities in North America, that combines a Container Recovery Facility (CRF) and a Plastics Recovery Facility (PRF) in one location.
It is a stable, dependable end-market for plastic packaging and products recovered in municipal and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) recycling programs in Ontario, across Canada and throughout the USA.
ReVital's proprietary process incorporates state-of-the-art technology that sorts and converts recovered plastics into discrete resin types, tailored to specific customer end-use applications. This approach ensures ReVital improves recovery rates for end-of-life products and packaging, extends material value and utility, and allows manufacturers and retailers to offer new products that incorporate recycled content.
ReVital has capacity to meet the plastics recycling needs of municipalities in central Canada as well as the US mid-west, bringing recovered resources back to Canada to add value to Canada's recycling and manufacturing industries and local economy.
