QTR Inc. plans to build a larger recycling and compounding facility

QTR Inc. plans to build a larger recycling and compounding facility in Evansville, Ind. In addition to the $3.1 million project, the company also is moving into recycling post-consumer PET. Most of the company’s recycled-content compounds are sold to automotive part suppliers.

Originally, QTR was going to expand its current facility, but those plans were nixed when the company learned that it would be building on a floodway, said President Rod Jackson. The expansion will create up to 30 new jobs, 10 of which will be filled immediately. QTR currently has 40 employees at its warehouse and lab.

The company tentatively plans to build the new plant next to its existing facility. Expenditures include a recently purchased 26-millimeter lab RND twin-screw extrusion line and a differential scanning calorimeter. The calorimeter is used to decipher the content of recycled bottles.

Jackson said the move will not stall production. “There won’t be any production interruption because lines will be decommissioned one at a time and relocated to the new facility,” he said in a June 14 telephone interview. The new line will be installed directly at the new facility.

The new equipment will help the company begin to compound more post-consumer plastic. Until now, QTR has handled only post-industrial scrap. “It’s better for the environment, and there’s money to be had there,” Jackson said.

QTR’s specialty has been compounding polycarbonate and polycarbonate alloys. Jackson said QTR will incorporate post-consumer PET into those products. “PET is difficult to run and use, but if you add polycarbonate to it you can make some very robust polymers,” he said. Jackson also noted that a polycarbonate/PET amalgam was very chemical-resistant.

Jackson, who is also the vice chair-elect of the Society of Plastics Engineers Environmental Division, said the automotive industry will probably be QTR’s largest customer for compounded PET, because that sector traditionally has accounted for 70 percent of QTR’s business.

The company received a $97,000 grant from the Indiana Recycling and Energy Development Board for the project. A condition of the grant requires QTR to match the funds provided.