A Sarnia company wants city council's decision on its new recycling contract to be based on a provider that will guarantee the recycling of black plastics.
ReVital Polymers Chief Commercial Officer Keith Bechard says black plastic, used primarily in takeout containers, is just like every other type of plastic and can be recycled.
Communities such as Ottawa, Kingston and Windsor have been shipping mixed plastics to ReVital's Lougar Ave. recycling operation.
"There are some municipalities who have provider limitations in their ability to recover black plastic," says Bechard. "We've developed a technology to recover black plastics and put them back into highly useful applications like automotive parts and consumer household products. Sarnia and surrounding area can recycle black plastics but the service providers, unfortunately, send them to processors who do not recover the product. What we're trying to do is work with area municipalities to have them send our plastics to Sarnia rather than send them off to Toronto for recycling."
ReVital currently recycles 4,000 tons of plastic monthly and employs about 80 people.
The city of Sarnia will make a decision on its recyclable contract in the coming months.
Right now Canadians only recycle about 11% of their plastics but there's a call from more than 40 organizations for the federal government to increase that to 85% by 2025.
