New Myplas facility in Rogers tackling plastic waste and creating green jobs
ROGERS, Minn. — A new Twin Cities facility is tackling an environmental problem and creating hundreds of green jobs.
Things like pallet wrap, boat wrap and food packaging are notoriously difficult to reuse and recycle.
The mountains of plastic sitting in this humming new warehouse in Rogers, Minnesota are about to embark on a process to become new again.
The team at Myplas is taking the toughest type of trash and turning it into something usable.
"We've gone for tackling the problem that's really big, and probably the most difficult to solve," Myplas CEO Andrew Pieterse said.
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We use 12-15 billion pounds of flexible packaging every year in the U.S., so things like film and plastic bags. But only 5% of it gets recycled. Myplas is trying to change that
Pieterse says his South African company landed in Minnesota in part because of a $13 million investment by companies like General Mills, Schwan's Company, Target and Ecolab.
"You cant do recycling on your own. You need partners across the supply chain that can collaborate, and we found that in Minnesota," Pieterse said. "We're trying to buy used film from partners who then buy it back from us."
"This is really an opportunity to show how collaboration can solve tough environmental challenges," Joanne Berkenkamp, Managing Director for MBOLD, said.
The transformation starts as bales of plastic ooze onto the conveyor belt. The crunch of a sorter pulls apart the tightly twisted clumps. Then it's up the conveyor belt to the shaker that weeds out the unwanted.
The puffs of plastic float by as the team goes to work The rumble of the machine shears the plastic into strips.
The film becomes flakes, which are then washed, dried and pelletized so it can become film again. It's a process that can be repeated 12 times over.
When the facility ramps up production, it will employ up to 200 people and recycle nearly 90 million pounds of plastic waste each year — enough to circle the globe in pellet wrap more than 135 times.
It's a true circular economy in motion that solves a pollution problem and creates big business.
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