Direct Pack, Inc. featured in Plastics Recycling Update

Direct Pack’s acquisition of Direct Pack Recycling was featured in Plastics Recycling Update:

U.S. plastic thermoform manufacturer Direct Pack Inc. has acquired a PET reclaimer and is now processing recovered thermoforms at a Mexico site. Direct Pack, an Azusa, Calif.-headquartered packaging producer, recently purchased Atmosphera Verda, a Guadalajara, Mexico-based reclaimer. The company’s processing facility, which has been rebranded as Direct Pack Recycling, has the capacity to process 40 million pounds of recycled PET per year.

In a new step for Direct Pack, the processing facility will begin taking in recycled PET thermoforms and producing RPET resin for manufacturing new thermoform packaging.

“We have not had access to thermoform products until we started dealing directly with the MRFs,” said Craig Snedden, president of Direct Pack Inc., in an interview. The company has been reaching out to many MRFs in the Western U.S., Snedden said, and has secured a supply of clear bales that have a high volume of PET thermoforms, largely separated from the bottle stream. The company’s new Mexico facility breaks the bales, washes the PET and processes it into a clean, washed flake that goes back into Direct Pack’s manufacturing process. Read the full story here.