Rigid Reclaim Process is Recycling Innovation

The Recycling Challenge

Finding a Local Processor to Recycle Rigid Plastics

Rigid plastics are hard to recycle and, without the local infrastructure for efficient processing at an affordable price, almost 40 per cent of these plastics generated by Ontario businesses used to end up in landfill. So, how do you find a sustainable solution that can produce the raw materials for new plastic products without using the energy and resources it takes to make plastics from virgin materials?

The Blue Box Solution

A Forward-Thinking Investment

Our search for sustainable service providers began in 2006. Entropex was one of the companies that responded to our request for innovation. In 2008, Stewardship Ontario’s Board of Directors levied an additional $2.4 million in steward fees to support implementation of recycling enhancement initiatives. The following year, after a rigorous discovery process, we invested in two local companies, Entropex and EFS-plastics Inc. This enabled the companies to install new technology to process plastics here in Ontario. In 2011, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (OMRI) announced an investment of $4 million to support Entropex through the Innovation Demonstration Fund.

The Capacity to Recover 30,000 Tonnes of Plastic per Year

The investments in Entropex helped with the development of a full-scale demonstration process at its 180,000 sq. foot plastic recovery facility (PRF). It’s a process that can now recover 30,000 tonnes per year of unrecycled plastic that would otherwise end up in landfill. This means 90 more green jobs, reduces landfill costs for municipalities and creates a new source of plastic for the province’s manufacturers. It also generates local and global business opportunities.

Energy Savings

By returning more plastics to the manufacturing sector for reuse, the Entropex technology will save enough electricity to meet the energy needs of 38,000 people. The added bonus is that these plastics are infinitely recyclable so, thanks to the Entropex technology, they can be reused repeatedly by manufacturers.

The Rigid Plastics Collaborators

Stewardship Ontario’s Blue Box—A not-for-profit organization funded and governed by the industries that make and market the products and packaging materials recycled through the programs it manages—the Blue Box and Orange Drop.

Entropex—A privately owned Canadian company involved in the reprocessing of post-industrial and post-consumer plastics. Since 1978, Entropex has been a Canadian-based leader in the development of recycled plastics for a wide variety of construction, consumer product and industrial applications.

Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation—Supports world-class research, commercialization and innovation taking place across Ontario through a range of programs and services like the Ontario Research Fund, Innovation Demonstration Fund and Ontario Venture Capital Fund.

Connect with Stewardship Ontario 

We are always interested in hearing about new ideas to improve recycling. Contact us to talk about your green innovations and forward-thinking recycling technologies.