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Spotlight - PA Small Business Center Client Wins Governor's Environmental Award
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On April 26 Gov. Tom Corbett announced Engineered Plastics, Inc. was a winner of the 2011 Governor's Award for Environmental Excellence for its "Waste to Profit" project.
The awards are presented each year by the Department of Environmental Protection to highlight the best in environmental innovation and expertise throughout the Commonwealth.
Engineered Plastics, a Pennsylvania Small Business Development Centers client working with the Gannon University SBDC in Erie, PA, manufactures plastic parts and assemblies for the medical, electrical, sporting goods and consumer plastics industries. The company is based in Erie County and employs 200 workers.
The Pennsylvania SBDC and its Environmental Management Assistance Program helped Engineered Plastics develop a post-industrial materials recycling program that allowed the company to weather a recession that forced many other plastics manufacturers to lay off employees, outsource jobs or even go out of business.
With guidance from the Pennsylvania SBDC, Engineered Plastics applied for and earned a $500,000 Recycling Markets Infrastructure Development grant from the Department of Environmental Protection.
The grant enabled Engineered Plastics to purchase processing equipment and develop the infrastructure necessary to turn plastic waste into pellets for reuse in new plastic products, thereby reducing landfill costs, helping customers meet environmental and cost reduction goals, and creating demand for recycled materials.
Prior to the "Waste to Profit" project implementation, recycling operations made up less than five percent of Engineered Plastics total business. Now it has grown to near 30 percent.
Due to the increased demand, a newly created Recycling Division at Engineered Plastics was created and moved to a 75,000 square foot facility last month, and within a year additional space will be added to handle the increase in volume.
The Recycling Division at Engineered Plastics operates 24 hours per day, seven days a week and employs up to 30 workers at any given time.
For its achievement in environmental innovation, Engineered Plastics was formally recognized and honored at an awards dinner hosted by the Pennsylvania Environmental Council.
For more information, visit the PA Small Business Development Centers website.
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5/16/2011 |
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