Plastics News - April 22/29, 2019 - 1

April 22/29, 2019  PlasticsNews.com

$5

Pretium
acquires
Olcott
Plastics
By Jim Johnson
Plastics News Staff
When Olcott Plastics Inc. began
injection molding plastic jars five
decades ago, members of the family-owned business would sell their
products to customers out of the back
of a station wagon.
Many of those same customers
are still doing business with the St.
Charles, Ill.-based packaging maker,
but times are much different.
Olcott now produces more than 1
million jar and closure combinations
for the personal care and health and
beauty segments each and every day,
a level of business that attracted Pretium Packaging LLC's interest.
Chesterfield, Mo.-based Pretium is
acquiring Olcott in a deal that "meaningfully bolsters" Pretium's business
in those categories, the company
said.
Olcott co-owners Joseph and John
Brodner will both continue working
along with other Olcott employees,
Pretium CEO Paul Kayser said in a
statement.
"The acquisition brings significant
beauty care packaging expertise and
a robust product line to the Pretium
portfolio, which nicely complement
the health and beauty care packaging
offerings already in our portfolio,"
Kayser said.
Olcott is a 50-year-old injection
molder making and decorating single- and double-wall polypropylene
jars and seamless PET jars. The company also produces PP closures with
liners.
Joseph and John Brodner are
third-generation owners of Olcott, an
offshoot of Damen Tool & Engineering Co. of Chicago.
Damen Tool was started in 1944 by
Joseph Brodner Sr., Joseph Brodner
Jr. and Peter Brodner as a mold building and repair company.
Olcott Plastics was under the direction of Joseph Brodner Jr. until
the late 1980s when his sons Joseph

WHAT ARE PLASTICS-TO-FUEL
TECHNOLOGIES?
2 Materials like
metal and glass
are removed
from the
plastics stream.

1 Plastics
that can't be
economically
recycled are
delivered for
processing.

Parkway
buys two
Itech plants
By Catherine Kavanaugh
Plastics News Staff

3 Plastics
are heated
without
oxygen or
burning.

PLASTICS RECYCLING

ACC PUSHES
CHEMICAL
RECYCLING
LEGISLATION
By Steve Toloken
Plastics News Staff
The plastics industry is
making a push in states
for new laws to make it
easier to build next-generation recycling plants that
turn waste plastics into
feedstocks and fuels, and
it recently has secured
victories in Iowa and Tennessee.
But the effort - designed to carve out a
clearer regulatory approval path for what's called
chemical recycling - is
drawing opposition from
environmental
groups
and some state legislators
in Rhode Island, South

4 Gas is
cooled and
condensed
into oil,
fuels and
petroleum
products.

Carolina and Texas.
The new laws sought by
plastics companies and
the American Chemistry
Council would regulate
the plants as manufacturing operations, rather than landfills or solid
waste disposal facilities,
making it easier to get
government approvals.
The recent action in
Iowa and Tennessee follows similar successful
efforts in Florida, Georgia
and Wisconsin.
The push in state governments is linked to the
industry's broader $1 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste. Research into
See Recycling, Page 24

These products
can be repolymerized
and made into
clothing, carpet,
packaging, car
seats and more.
Fuel products
can power cars,
buses, ships
and planes.

Sources:
American
Chemistry
Council,
Plastics
Industry
Association

THE DEBATE OVER HOW
TO REGULATE THESE FACILITIES
The American
Chemistry Council
says plastics-to-fuel
technologies should
be regulated like
other manufacturing
facilities.

MORE
COVERAGE
INSIDE

See Pretium, Page 26

But some
environmental
groups and state
legislators said that
while they support
the goals of removing
plastic waste, they

question the
economic viability
and environmental
impact of the
technologies. South
Carolina state Rep.
Mandy Powers Norrell

Study: Chemical
recycling development
'not fast enough' PAGE 24

expressed concern
about shipments of
out-of-state waste,
saying she feared
South Carolina would
become a "dumping
ground."

Renewology eyes
cleanup of India's
Ganges river PAGE 24

Parkway Products LLC acquired
two facilities from Injection Technology Corp. to expand its large-tonnage
thermoplastic injection molding capacity.
Greenville, S.C.-based Parkway
bought the plants and equipment in
Westminster, S.C., and Arden, N.C.,
from Injection Technology Corp.
founder and CEO Carl Morris, who is
retiring.
Terms were not disclosed.
The deal had been in the works
since 2016, Parkway CEO Al Ridilla
said in a phone interview.
"We take really great care and we
use the carpenter's rule, but instead
of measuring twice and cutting once,
we measure five times because we
don't want to waste any wood," Ridilla said.
Itech measured up, he added.
"This is a great business founded
in 1987 by Carl, who is an innovator
in the plastics industry. He has done
some incredible things with tooling
innovations and structures," Ridilla
said. "We had our eye on Carl and his
team. We've always had a good relationship between Parkway and Itech
in South Carolina. If they needed help
or we did, our folks would drive over
and help."
Itech's two facilities in the Carolinas
round out Parkway's geographic presence in the Southeast, increases its
available press clamp tonnage greater
than 1,000 tons and boosts its regional capacity. Parkway is growing with
its customers.
"We're blessed to establish strong
relationships with good customers,"
Ridilla said.
Parkway plans to align the new facilities with its thermoplastic molding
centers in Greeneville, Tenn.; Seneca,
S.C.; and Marietta, Ga. For example,
the Westminster and Seneca plants
are only six miles apart.
"Those two plants will be conjoined
in many ways," Ridilla said. "With the
tonnage range, there's not a lot of
overlap between those plants. To put
the assets and capabilities of what
we have in Seneca and now what we
have in Westminster into one building
would present a managerial oversight
See Parkway, Page 26

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Plastics News - April 22/29, 2019
