New plastic baler boosts automotive container recycling capacity in B.C.

Safety-Kleen staff at the company’s recycling plant in Delta, B.C. Photo Credit: Interchange Recycling

Interchange Recycling, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the collection and recycling of used oil, antifreeze, and automotive containers in British Columbia, announced that its industry partner Safety-Kleen Canada Inc. has installed a new plastic baler in Delta, B.C.

The new plastic baler will help improve automotive container-recycling rates across the province, and will process over half a million kilograms of automotive plastic annually. According to Interchange officials, the baler is the first of its kind in B.C. capable of facilitating increased consolidation with other automotive and industrial liquid packaging from across the country.

“We have been working with Safety-Kleen for two decades to help to close the loop on the life cycle of oil in the auto industry by diverting used oil, oil filters and used antifreeze from landfills,” said Interchange CEO David Lawes. “With this new infrastructure, our partnership with them has deepened as they have expanded their operation to include the collection of automotive containers.”

Headquartered in Oshawa, Ont., Safety-Kleen is an environmental services company specializing in used oil and plastics recycling.

Currently in B.C., 1.7 million kilograms of automotive plastic containers are recycled every year, Lawes continued, but Interchange expects that number to grow with the new plastic baler. “Most of the recycled containers will end up being used again in industrial sectors or in landscaping, and the plastic collected will circle back into the North American economy,” he said.

“We needed brand new infrastructure to help process plastic locally,” said Sam Glofcheskie, regional vice president with Safety-Kleen. “Right now, only around nine per cent of plastic waste is recycled in Canada. We want to help fix that. The new baler has allowed us to create jobs in the province, has expanded our partnership with Interchange and is going to help British Columbia move a step closer towards a circular system in the auto space.”

The plastic baled at Safety-Kleen’s facility in Delta will go to a processing facility in Quebec run by recycling firm RPM eco, where it will be recycled and eventually re-used as new product.

“RPM eco has years of operational experience in collecting contaminated plastics in New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Ontario and Alberta,” Glofcheskie added. “We’re grateful that they have now entered the market in British Columbia and will be helping us collect plastic in the Lower Mainland before it is baled in Delta and then processed at their facility in Quebec.”