ReVital Polymers opens Canada's first facility to recover containers and plastics in one location

ReVital Polymers Inc., Canada's first recycling facility that combines a Container Recovery Facility (CRF) and a Plastics Recovery Facility (PRF) in one location, held its official opening on Friday, October 20. The Sarnia facility is now one of the newest and most advanced plastics recycling and recovery plants in North America.

Among the dignitaries on hand to help launch the new facility were Arthur Potts, MPP (Beaches-East York) and Parliamentary Assistant to Ontario's Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change; Michael Bradley, Mayor of the City of Sarnia; Bob Bailey, MPP (Lambton-Sarnia); and Carol Hochu, President and CEO of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. ReVital owners Tony Moucachen, President, and Emmie Leung, CEO, welcomed more than 60 guests. 

According to Leung, ReVital stands out from other plastic recyclers in the industry, and is now part of Ontario's clean technology industry, contributing to Sarnia's and the province's green economy. "ReVital's proprietary process incorporates state-of-the-art technology that sorts and converts waste plastics into discrete resin types that are then tailored to specific customer end-use applications," she said .  "The difference between us and other plastic recyclers is that our resins can be used in high-end, high-value applications, like new plastic bottles and containers, household consumer products and automotive parts, as compared to drain pipes and plastic lumber, which are typical end-uses of recycled plastic."  

President Tony Moucachen added that ReVital "contributes to the provincial goal of creating a circular economy as well as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by meeting demand for post-consumer and post-industrial engineered recycled resin." He said that through its customized approach, ReVital "improves recovery rates for end-of-life products and packaging, extends material value and utility through better end-of-life management and allows manufacturers and retailers to offer new products that incorporate recycled content.

"The value proposition of this innovation is that it enhances the value of materials that are currently landfilled and we are upcycling versus down cycling these materials...and that is a ground breaker achieved through research and development by the ReVital team," said Moucachen.  "Because of our team's experience in delivering an integrated suite of efficient and effective services from the curb to resin feedstock...we have created a closed loop system that gives brand owners and manufacturers outstanding sustainable materials management."

In operation for under a year, the ReVital facility is already a commercial success. It has the capacity to meet the plastics recycling needs of central Canada as well as the mid-west of the US, bringing recovered resources back to Canada to add value to Canada's recycling industry and local economy. Leung and Moucachen, well-known veterans in the paper products and packaging recycling industry, formed a partnership last year to acquire the 180,000-square foot recycling facility located on Lougar Avenue. They made considerable investments, adding state-of-the-art processing equipment, including optical sorters that use an infrared technology to "read" material types and sort them into discrete resin categories for further washing, grinding, formulation and extrusion. 

"For us, Sarnia is an ideal location for our new business," said ReVital Polymers CEO, Emmie Leung. "It puts us at the heart of a large and growing catchment area in central Canada and the mid-west... perfectly situated to receive post-consumer and post-industrial plastics collected from residential and industrial-commercial-institutional recycling programs. We have made substantial investments that make this facility more effective and more efficient than any single purpose plant."

"ReVital's closed loop process reflects the principles of the circular economy and is helping to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy," she added. 

Tony Moucachen is the founder and President of Merlin Plastics Group, a pioneer of the North American plastic packaging recycling and remarketing industry. He started Merlin Plastics in 1987 and today, it serves customers throughout Canada and the USA, processing rigid and flexible plastic packaging for remanufacturing into new products. Merlin Plastics has made substantial achievements in research, development and commercialization and obtained FDA approvals for its recycled polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polypropylene (PP) resin.

Emmie Leung is the founder and CEO of Emterra Group, which employs more than 1,100 people through four divisions across Canada and in the US State of Michigan. Emterra offers municipal and industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) customers a fully integrated approach to collecting, processing and marketing recyclables, organic waste, waste, and scrap tires and offers secure product destruction. The company annually markets more than 500,000 tonnes of recyclables and has more than 30 facilities, including six state-of-the-art single stream recycling facilities and a facility that converts liquid waste into ethanol. Emterra is one of Canada's most progressive users of alternative green fleet technologies, with 35 per cent of its fleet powered by compressed natural Gas (CNG) and a network of four CNG fuelling stations.

Merlin Plastics Group and Emterra Group are business partners in another venture that provides end-of-life management services for recyclable materials collected in British Columbia's Recycle BC extended producer responsibility program for packaging and printed paper.