New plastic film recycling plant to come to Rogers, Minn.

CATHY WURZER: The pandemic continues, so does the resulting refuse associated with it. The pandemic caused a huge uptick in plastic garbage in the US. Lots of it is from the plastic food to go boxes, and yeah, masks. A new recycling plant is set to open in Rogers, Minnesota through an international company called Myplas.

Brand owners and other private and public entities have invested millions of dollars into the project to build a 170,000 square foot film recycling plant. Here to talk about the new recycling company is Andrew Peterson. He's the US CEO of the company My Place. Andrew, welcome to Minnesota Now.

ANDREW PETERSON: Hi, Kathy. Thanks for having me.

CATHY WURZER: When I hear film, I think of photos or movie film. That's clearly not what you're dealing with. What will the plant recycle?

ANDREW PETERSON: So we are going to be recycling mainly film, and by film, I mean, anything that stretches. When I think about plastic, it's overly, grossly simplifying it, but I think of ridgets, which is your milk bottles, and your juice bottles, and all the rest of it, and then film, which is your shopping bags, the wrap that goes over your cucumber, that kind of thing. So we're going to be focusing on processing film.

CATHY WURZER: How much do you think you'll go through, say, in a month at this new plant?

ANDREW PETERSON: Oh gosh, so, I mean, clearly, like with any manufacturing business, we're going to ramp up, right? We're looking to ramp up really quickly. So when we're at full capacity in about two years from now, we'll be running about 90 pounds million worth of plastics in the facility. So that's 90 pounds million of plastic waste that would have ended up in landfill, or worse, lakes, the ocean, somewhere in the environment.

CATHY WURZER: How are you recycling this film?

ANDREW PETERSON: So recycling is not the most complex process. It really is a process of grinding, washing, melting, and then re-compounding into pellets. We produce these pellets, which would then [INAUDIBLE] what we call converters, who then use the pellets to create new applications.

CATHY WURZER: New applications in what way?

ANDREW PETERSON: Film applications, instead of using what we call virgin plastic, which is plastic produced by oil companies. We sell recycled pellets and then new applications, like shopping bags and the little plastic that covers your microwave meal, that kind of thing. That's what I mean by application.

CATHY WURZER: So Minnesota, of course, as the site for this new recycling plant, you could have gone anywhere, but you chose Minnesota. Why did you do that?

ANDREW PETERSON: Yes, I get that question a lot. You know what? We didn't choose Minnesota. Minnesota chose us.

We've been looking to expand internationally for quite some time, and especially after the National Sword Policy of China, which some people may be aware of. That's when China decided not to accept plastic waste from the US any longer. That really opened up an opportunity for us to bring our technical skills to the US, so we were looking particularly in the Midwest.

And through a wonderful coalition called Involved, which is part of greater MSB, we were connected serendipitously through fate, whatever you want to call it, to this organization. Involved is a coalition of some of the biggest food and ag corporate companies headquartered in Minnesota. So through this coalition, we were connected to these companies, and yeah, found our investors and our partners to set up this plant.

CATHY WURZER: I'm glad you mentioned China. The US hasn't really had a chance to build many more recycling plants since China stopped accepting many US recyclables in 2019 as you stated. Where has all the recycling been going to this point?

ANDREW PETERSON: Yeah, I mean, that's the sad part, right? We use in the US about 15 pounds billion worth of plastic film of which only 5% gets recycled, so the rest really does end up in landfill or in the environment. So it's a huge problem, and we are-- once we get up and running, we'll only be tackling a tiny portion of the problem. So we're hoping that kind of the template that we've got now, this plant that we're setting up will be replicated by ourselves, but also, other companies. Because this is a huge problem, and it's not going away without us not doing something seriously about it.

CATHY WURZER: Mhm, by the way, where will you get the plastic from? Just public entities, companies sending you their refuse? Do you have a plan for that?

ANDREW PETERSON: Yeah, and I think that's the beauty of this plant that we're setting up in Rogers. Putting up a recycling plant is one thing, but finding a supply chain that works together is a completely different story. And recycling is one of those businesses, one of those industries, where you really need to have collaboration across the supply chain. So what we've done is partnered with, as I say this, some of the biggest companies in the Minnesota region to produce or to send some of their waste to us.

We then repurpose it, or reclaim it, or recycle it, and then work with a converter to produce new applications. So what we're trying to do here is create what we call a circular economy. So the traditional model was produce, consume waste, and what we're doing here is produce, consume, recycle, produce, consume. And we're doing that with the help of some of the biggest partners as I said earlier.

CATHY WURZER: Before you go, can you give me a timeline of when the plant will be built and start operations?

ANDREW PETERSON: Oh yeah, so we are looking to start operations in May next year. We will be-- you know, we've already signed a lease on our site in Rogers. We've got our equipment underway. We started recruitment. So if everything goes to plan, we'll be up and running by May.

CATHY WURZER: All right, we wish you well. Andrew, thank you so much.

ANDREW PETERSON: Thank you very much for having me.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to Andrew Peterson, CEO of My Place USA.