October 20, 2017 – Paul Morden, The Observer – ReVital Polymers, a new company that purchased a Sarnia recycling facility on Lougar Avenue after its previous owner went under last summer, is up and operating.
ReVital was created after industry veterans Tony Moucachen and Emmie Leung formed a partnership to buy the 180,000-square-foot facility that had been the location of Entropex, a recycling company that went into receivership in July 2016, putting 155 people out of work.
The plant, which is now in the “starting process,” has between 60 and 80 employees, Moucachen said Friday during an opening event at the site.
“A year or two ago, we thought this plant was lost to the community,” Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley said.
“To see it revitalized, to see it renewed, is an incredible accomplishment.”
Described by ReVital Polymers as one of the newest and most advanced plastics recycling and recovery plants in North America, the Sarnia operation combines a container recovery facility and a plastics recovery facility in one location.
“This plant can handle mixed containers,” Moucachen said.
“This opens a big opportunity for municipalities who don’t have the capital to buy all the sorting equipment.”
Moucachen said the plant is expected to draw plastic from municipal, industrial, commercial and institutional recycling program in Central Canada, as well as cross the Midwest and as far away as Alberta.
The plant’s end product is plastic resin pellets that can be used in higher-value applications, such as new plastic bottles and containers, household consumer products and automotive parts.
The company didn’t say how much of an investment it has made in Sarnia, other than Moucachen’s description of it being “significant in skills and money and time.”
ReVital Polymers has added optical sorters using infrared technology to sort material into different categories for washing, grinding, formulation and extrusion of resin.
That process can be completed in two hours from the time material arrives at that site, Moucachen said.
The site contributes to Ontario’s goal of creating a “circular economy” while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions by helping meet demand for recycled plastic resin, according to Moucachen.
“Consumers feel better about plastic as a material choice if we, throughout the value chain, can demonstrate that plastics is recyclable and is indeed being recycled,” said Carol Hochu, president of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, who attended Friday event.
“The capacity and the scale of ReVital Polymers, along with its innovative processes to customize resins to specific end market specifications, sets it apart from other plastic recyclers in North American,” Hochu added.
Leung, founder and CEO of Emterra Group, and Moucachen, founder and president of Merlin Plastics Group, have been business partners for more than two decades.
“Sarnia is an ideal location for our business,” Leung said.
“It puts us in the heart of a large and growing catchment area in Central Canada, as well as the Midwest.”
Moucachen added Sarnia has “talented people, especially in polymers.”
pmorden@postmedia.com
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