Troy Shantz
Sarnia is now home to one of the most advanced recycling plants in the country, one that’s able to handle any blue box plastics consumers throw at it.
ReVital Polymers Inc. is an 180,000-square-foot facility that is expected to employ 60 to 80 workers and process 6,000 tonnes of waste plastic each month.
Located in the former Entropex site on Lougar Avenue, it takes post-consumer and post-industrial plastics and converts them into resins used in household products and auto parts.
“We have made substantial investment to make this facility more efficient and more effective,” CEO Emmie Leung told a grand opening last week.
Using infrared cameras, ReVital’s system optically sorts plastic waste before it is ground, washed, dried, formulated and extruded.
The whole process takes only about two hours from start to finish, said Keith Bechard, ReVital’s Chief Commercial Officer.
“It has the versatility to collect plastic as small as one inch… up to those 120-gallon rolling recycling carts.”
Location and expertise were factors in setting up in the city, said president Tony Moucachen.
“Sarnia has talented people, especially in polymers. It’s got many things going for it.”
Sarnia Mayor Mike Bradley was on hand for the grand opening. He called the return of a plastics recycling plant part of the city’s “incredible’ pivot to a greener economy.
“A year or two ago we thought this plant was lost to the community,” he said. “To see it revitalized, to see it renewed is an incredible accomplishment.
“This community has been ahead of the track on recycling, on renewal, innovation.”
The plant’s owners have a background in waste management and processing.
Leung founded Emterra Group, which employs over 1,100 employees in Canada and in Michigan, and Moucachen founded Merlin Plastics, which processes rigid and flexible plastic into new products.