Plastics News Show Daily - April 3, 2012 - (Page 31)

PLASTICS NEWS, April 3, 2012 • 31 Plastics News photo by Mike Verespej Coll Continued from Page 30 looking at several companies that use recycled content in products near the Waco plant to evaluate how it can help companies in the region save money. “We want to give them the opportunity to have those products manufactured near where they are, rather than to purchase them and have them shipped crosscountry to their locations,” Combs said. “There are significant opportunities in the Southwest for thicksheet extrusion,” he said. “A large part of contract manufacturing is having a management team experienced in manufacturing,” said Coll. “All of our manufacturing team are ex-manufacturing or plastics packaging professionals with 20-30 years’ experience.” Coll said the Allentown plant’s capacity is about 50 percent larger than its former plant in Nazareth that was destroyed by fire. That higher capacity and additional equipment was added to recycle post-consumer plastics as well as the industrial plastics that the Nazareth plant had focused on. “We would never open up a new plant just to do post-industrial plastics,” Coll said. He added that the second railroad-tie extrusion production line at Waco is still slated to start up on time in the second quarter. That plant also sells recycled resin to PVC pipe maker CertainTeed Corp. and does toll process- visit and evaluate the Zanesville and Waco plants in mid-February for the purpose of setting targets for improvement, said Fix. The company made a number of changes early on, after he joined the company earlier this year, Fix said. “We did a little bit of fine-tuning,” Fix said. “New processes are being put in.” After starting four years ago with all used equipment, all equipment at Coll’s three plants is not more than two years old, including eight Cumberland grinders, three 8-inch extruders, three 6-inch extruders and two 4½-inch extruders. “There is not an extruder in the company that doesn’t run 24/7 to meet customer demand,” said Coll. “The demand for recycled resins has significantly increased in the past few years and that all stems from the power of WalMart,” Coll said. “That has been the driver. The carbon footprint of recycled resin is one-fourth that of virgin, so that is another driver. And it all comes from sustainability as a whole. “This is an industry of opportunity if managed properly,” he said. THE COLL TEAM From left to right: Matt Elli, VP of community development; Susan Bieterman, VP of procurement; Brian Coll, president and CEO; Renee Coll, member and shareholder; Paul Fix, VP of operations; Bob Combs, VP of engineering; Gary Considine, sales manager; and Rick Kunko, CFO ‘There are significant opportunities in the Southwest for thick-sheet extrusion.’ Bob Combs Coll Materials Group ing for garden hose for Colorite Plastics, which makes some of its hoses from recycled PVC. Like all Coll plants, the Waco facility recycles a variety of resins including high-density polyethylene, polypropylene and PVC. The Allentown plant also reprocesses high-impact polystyrene. “Recycling is a regional business,” Coll said. “Having plants in different locations allows us to provide recyclers with a steady flow of materials both in the East and west of the Mississippi and saves our customers freight costs.” The company is always looking at ways to improve the efficiency of its recycling lines. “We have started metrics to measure how well we are doing on each line in all of our plants,” said operations manager Fix. That efficiency is measured in terms of pounds/day, quality and rejects. “Right now, the plant that is being most successful is the Allentown plant,” where the acquired Nicos Polymer operations were moved after fire destroyed the plant in Nazareth last August. To leverage that, Coll and Fix had the Allentown plant manager  http://www.millikenchemical.com

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Plastics News Show Daily - April 3, 2012

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