Film Recycling Plant Opens In Minnesota

A facility designed to recycle plastic film has officially opened in Rogers, Minnesota. Myplas USA, a South Africa-based plastics recycler, opened its mechanical recycling and pelletizing plant near Minneapolis as part of a collaborative effort to create a regional circular economy for flexible films and packaging materials in the Upper Midwest.

“This is a very exciting day for Myplas as we open our U.S. headquarters and our first U.S. recycling facility in Minnesota,” says Andrew Pieterse, Myplas USA CEO. “It’s been a remarkable journey to help bring this vision to life and we are proud to bring our expertise to this groundbreaking initiative. The ongoing commitment of our partners has been vital to bringing us to this point. We are excited for what lies ahead.”

At full capacity, the facility will recycle nearly 90 million pounds of plastic waste per year. It is expected to employ nearly 200 people.

The facility will be specifically aimed at recycling film into new plastic raw material. Photo Credit: Myplas

The film recycling initiative is led by Minnesota’s MBOLD coalition of food and agriculture businesses. The Myplas facility was made possible by a joint $13 million equity investment by lead investors General Mills, Schwan’s Company and Midwest-based film manufacturer Charter Next Generation, and supporting investors Target and Ecolab. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), Closed Loop Partners and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) provided additional financial support for development of the recycling facility. DEED also provided support from the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership for workforce training and development.

“Reducing the impact of flexible packaging and film waste requires us to think innovatively and creatively,” says Dimitrios Smyrnios, CEO of Schwan’s Company, and MBOLD’s chair and executive champion for this initiative. “Schwan’s chose to invest in Myplas because we’re committed to reducing the environmental impact of our packaging, and we want to be a catalyst for other companies to do the same. It’s the right thing to do for our environment, our business and our region.”

The Challenge of Flexible Film recycling

The U.S. economy uses 12-15 billion pounds of flexible packaging and films every year for products ranging from pallet wrap to e-commerce mailers, boat wrap, food packaging, shrink-wrap, lawn and garden bags, and hay bale wrap. However, only an estimated 5% of flexible films used in the U.S. is recycled each year, with the rest being landfilled, incinerated or released into the environment.

“Our region is leading the nation in tackling tough sustainability issues,” says JoAnne Berkenkamp, managing director of MBOLD. “Myplas now provides regionally appropriate recycling opportunities for this challenging material, and we are driving innovation to incorporate recycled resin into new film products. Collaboration across the value chain is the secret sauce.”