Polymer Technologies Inc. News

Polymer Technologies' Robust Recycling Initiative Significantly Boosts Sustainability & Inspires Employees Market

Polymer Technologies, working with Waste Masters and Blue River Resources, launched an aggressive recycling initiative in July as part of the company's mission to reduce its carbon footprint, protect the environment and inspire fellow Delaware businesses to embrace recycling.

NEWARK, DE—Jarred Prybutok, Executive Vice President & General Manager of Polymer Technologies, a leading manufacturing company in the acoustical and thermal composites industry, recently tasked himself and each of the company's more than 140 employees with an aggressive recycling initiative that would change the way Polymer Technologies operates – complete recycling of all the waste that results from the company's insulation materials manufacturing.

No small task, the recycling initiative which kicked off last Spring and officially launched during the summer, was delivered with much thanks to more than two months of solid planning between Polymer Technologies and fellow Delaware businesses, Waste Masters and Blue River Resources.
The waste management vendor of Polymer Technologies, Waste Masters, a privately owned company offering innovative environmental solutions including recycling, commercial and industrial waste solutions, and more, recommended Polymer Technologies take a look at Blue River Resources. Why? The recycling process of Polymer Technologies insulation materials presented no shortage of challenges.

"Finding homes for all the waste we generate from the manufacturing of our insulation materials was an enormous challenge, chiefly due to an adhesive layer that is used on our insulation," Prybutok explains. "We create so many different types of composites, it was difficult to research and discover facilities that could utilize our waste appropriately."

Enter Blue River Resources, one of Delaware's first permitted, full-service materials recovery facilities that accepts diverse recyclable materials – paper, cardboard, glass and plastics – collected from residential, commercial and institutional customers. Blue River Resources separates, aggregates and markets diverse recyclable materials, diverting them from disposal facilities.
In working with Polymer Technologies, Prybutok reports Blue River Resources successfully designed, implemented and provided cost-effective measures toward a new recycling procedure that is helping Polymer Technologies achieve landfill free and zero waste benchmarks. Polymer Technologies' admirable recycling initiatives were completed well in advance of Delaware's requirement of businesses to demonstrate comprehensive recycling programs no later than Jan. 1, 2014. As of September 2013, Polymer Technologies is recycling virtually everything on site, with the exception of food waste and non-recyclable items.

 "We are very proud of our efforts in embracing our relationship with Blue River to advance our environmental strategies, reduce our carbon footprint and, in the process, secure significant company savings," Prybutok reports.
According to Prybutok, the company today compacts its recyclable insulation materials into bales, stores the bales in a trailer provided by Waste Masters and, once every three weeks, arranges for the trailer to be transported by Waste Masters to the Blue River Resources facility just south of Wilmington, DE.

By compressing its recyclable insulation materials, Polymer Technologies has reduced its transportation requirements from four to five transports per month to, on average, one transport per month. "With our new recycling measures in place, we are experiencing less waste transports, which translates to a true cost savings thanks to Blue River unearthing other businesses that can use the waste," Prybutok explains.

Plus, Prybutok shares, a boost to the company's culture thanks to the new recycling initiatives is readily apparent. "We all came together as a family to take on the challenge of changing the way we recycled at Polymer Technologies, in every way," Prybutok shares. "As a company – and a family – we are committed to reducing our carbon footprint and helping the environment."
What's on deck in recycling efforts for the Polymer Technologies family?

"We are going paperless," Prybutok states. "We are reviewing measures right now to further reduce our energy consumption and continue to promote protecting our environment – we are fully engaged and committed to being as efficient, effective and streamlined as possible."

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