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Plastic Recycling August 15, 2017 03:30:53 PM

QRS Plastics Recycling Facility in Maryland to Close Down

Paul Ploumis
ScrapMonster Author
The idling of the plant comes in the wake of China announcing fresh restrictions on scrap imports into the country as part of its ongoing National Sword initiative.

QRS Plastics Recycling Facility in Maryland to Close Down

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): Challenging market conditions have led to closure of one-promising plastics recycling facility in Dundalk, Maryland. The facility, a joint venture between St. Louis-based QRS Recycling and Canusa Hershman Recycling Co. will be shut down, on account of tough market conditions. Equipment upgrade at the plant is also cited as a reason for the closure. It must be noted that QRS had announced closure of its plastics recovery facility in Atlanta during May last year, citing tricky market conditions and technology constraints.

According to Ethan Hershman, CEO, Canusa Hershman Recycling Co., the plant is being shutdown on account of the need to optimize its equipment. At the moment, the company is considering various options including new joint-venture partnership and fresh acquisition to run the facility. To remain competitive in the challenging post-consumer plastics industry, the facility requires incorporating well-tested and novel technologies. Finding market for polystyrene and PVC has turned out to be more challenging as never before, noted Hershman.

The idling of the plant comes in the wake of China announcing fresh restrictions on scrap imports into the country as part of its ongoing National Sword initiative. China continues to remain as the top destination of scrap plastics export. The restrictions by Chinese administration have already impacted the operations of many US processors including advanced facilities. Further tightening of import regulations may lead to closure of more such facilities.

Meantime, QRS noted that the proposed ban on imports of more categories of recovered materials by Chinese authorities will not pose threat as the company is already in efforts to finding domestic market for post-consumer plastic waste. In fact, the Chinese action is likely to open up more pathways for companies like QRS, the company stated. QRS has been successful in finding end markets for most of the recovered plastics except PS and PVC.

The $15 million facility, built in an area of 128,000 square-feet, was opened in November 2015. The plant, aimed at recycling mixed plastics, had the ability to handle 4,500 tons per month using high-tech processing equipment. The Closed Loop investment fund had provided $2 million loan for the project, citing the market prospects for hard-to-recycle plastics and the huge capacity of the plant. Incidentally, it was Closed Loop’s first investment in a full recycling facility. It was even projected as a ‘game-changing’ solution to handle plastics that are hard to recycle. At full capacity, the plant was projected to create 60 full-time jobs.

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