The exciting plans include constructing a new, 54,000-square-foot building adjacent to the current 238,000-square foot facility. The addition will house a new high-volume, food-grade rPET manufacturing line. Once installed and running, Evergreen will have three rPET manufacturing lines to produce the in-demand recycled material that food and beverage, health and beauty, and other consumer products companies are clamoring to include in their plastic packaging.
There are more positive changes on the way. Evergreen’s two existing lines will be retrofitted with solid-state polycondensation reactors to be consistent with the new line in delivering the higher quality rPET specifications required by leading consumer products brands.
Greenbridge CEO Omar Abuaita said the expansion at Evergreen is part of the company’s “growing green” strategy, a proactive response to customer and consumer preference for sustainability solutions and the desire to include more recycled content in new packages.
“The market is speaking very loudly that it wants ‘green’ packaging. rPET is one of our core businesses along with recycling services. Doubling our manufacturing capacity of food-grade rPET will allow us to drive significant growth with consumer products customers that are committed to increasing recycled content in their packaging,” Abuaita says.
Currently, Evergreen collects more than one billion post-consumer PET bottles each year. We then sort, clean, and recycle these bottles into 40 million pounds of rPET pellets. In effect, we turn trash into treasure! Evergreen will continue to partner with municipalities and other aggregators to collect post-consumer PET bottles as well as other recyclables. Our commitment to recycling keeps PET bottles out of landfills, oceans, other waterways, and communities and in the “circular economy.”
Greenbridge Vice President of Corporate Operations Greg Johnson says Evergreen’s expansion also creates opportunities for team members. “Evergreen is hiring now and will continue to grow our team when the expansion is complete. If someone has their eye on a job with more responsibility, there are also great opportunities to advance your career.”
Construction on Evergreen’s expansion is anticipated to begin in May 2021 with completion in mid 2022.
