New plastics recycling plant opening in Toronto

Recycling company Canada Fibers Ltd. is opening a new 160,000-square-foot plastics recycling plant in Toronto.

Named Urban Polymers, the new venture will focus on creation of pure, homogeneous plastic materials from post-consumer and post-industrial waste, using state-of-the art equipment and additive formulations sourced globally.

The project has a familiar figure at its helm: Mark Badger, the former head of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. “We simply aim to provide plastics processors with a sustainable complement to prime materials,” Badger said. “[Urban Polymers] has assembled an experienced technical team who are targeting industry segments not yet penetrated in North America.”

During its initial phases of development, Urban Polymers will focus on production of PET flake material, as well as production of compounded PE and PP in pellet form. PET is the primary source of material for beverage bottles and single serving food containers, with PE and PP utilized to produce packaging for other liquids including household detergents.

The plant will be capable of processing 25 million pounds per year of PET and 11 million pounds per year of PP/PE during its initial phases of development – which it calls a “significant increase to recycling infrastructure” in Canada.

Canada Fibers was established 25 years ago as a Toronto-based paper recovery and marketing operation. Since then, operational scope has broadened to include recovery, separation and marketing of a wide variety of recovered materials, comprising plastic, glass, aluminum, paper and metal materials.