Maine Plastics To Recover, Recycle Reusable Plastics to be Generated at NPE2012

Next year’s NPE2012 international plastics exposition will be so big that the reusable scrap generated in just one day by equipment operating on the exhibit floor will amount to tens of thousands of pounds.

 To prevent the waste of this valuable material, SPI: The Plastics Industry Trade Association has appointed Maine Plastics, Inc. as the official recycler for NPE2012. The company is charged with the collection, separation, transportation, and reprocessing of production-line scrap, as well as such other waste as the PET bottles left behind by more than 60,000 visitors.  NPE2012 is the fifth consecutive edition of the triennial NPE for which Maine Plastics has provided these services.

Organized by SPI, NPE2012 will take place April 1-5, 2012 at the Orange County Convention Center (OCCC) in Orlando, Florida. Maine Plastics will coordinate with SPI, the OCCC, exhibitors, and vendors in administering the recycling program.

 Taking part in the program will cost exhibitors no more than if they used standard trash removal services, noted David Spitulnik, president of Maine Plastics.

 “Our goal is to equal or surpass the NPE2009 recycling program, in which we collected and recycled 95% of the recoverable materials, amounting to 125,000 pounds,” said Spitulnik.

 Chances are good that the 2012 recycling program will surpass that of 2009 by a large margin, according to Gene Sanders, SPI’s senior vice president of trade shows and conferences. “We expect to see a lot more scrap being produced on the NPE2012 show floor, and that will be a good thing,” said Sanders. “It will be the result of a substantial increase in the number of machines being shown in full operation, enhancing the value of attending NPE2012 while yielding everything from caps and closures to blown film to automotive components.”

The increase in operating equipment will be the result of the lower costs and simpler logistics available to exhibitors in the new Orlando venue, as compared with the Chicago site of the NPE2009 show, Sanders noted.

To highlight the importance of recycling PET, SPI is organizing a PET recycling demonstration and exhibit designed to be an education and awareness platform for the industry. “Working with Maine Plastics, we will sponsor a live reprocessing demonstration, plus an exhibit of products manufactured from recovered PET bottles, such as fibers and clothing, strapping, and, of course, more bottles,” said Sanders.

Maine Plastics is headquartered in Zion, Illinois and was established in 1983. The company processes  more than 140 million lb/year.