The new recycling platform company will collect and process more than one billion post-consumer PET bottles per annum
Sterling Group has established new PET recycling platform company Evergreen. (Credit: The Sterling Group)
Private equity and credit investment company Sterling Group has established a new PET recycling platform company called Evergreen.
Sterling has separated Evergreen from its current portfolio firm Greenbridge Packaging and integrated it with CarbonLITE’s Riverside assets, which were bought via a 363 bankruptcy process.
The combined business will enable Evergreen to collect and process more than one billion post-consumer PET bottles per annum at facilities in Clyde of Ohio and Riverside of California.
Evergreen CEO Omar Abuaita said: “This is an exciting time; Riverside’s recycling and food-grade rPET manufacturing capabilities are well aligned with the great team and operations we have in place at Evergreen and our plans to bring more high quality, food-grade rPET to our customers.”
The operations of Evergreen include cleaning, sorting, washing and grinding post-consumer plastic bottles into recycled PET (rPET) flakes and pellets, which are then extruded for use by bottle manufacturers and other customers.
The recycling platform company will double its food-grade rPET manufacturing capacity at its Clyde facility over the next year, as a major expansion project is under development that will enhance the capacity and recycling capabilities.
The Sterling Group partner Scott MacLaren said: “The combination of these two businesses creates a growing national supplier that is well equipped to help its major consumer packaged goods customers increase recycled content in their packaging and thus lessen their impact on the environment.
“We look forward to partnering with management to bring our collective decades of experience operating recycling facilities to the continued expansion of Evergreen.”
Sterling’s portfolio companies are said to collectively recycle more than one billion PET bottles, as well as 200 million HDPE milk jugs per annum.