Evergreen Celebrates Expansion, Growth for Recycled rPET Plastic

CLYDE, OHIO – Evergreen, a preferred supplier of food and non-food grade rPET, will celebrate the completion of their building and production expansion in Clyde, Ohio on Friday, July 22, 2022 at a private event.

The expansion began in August of 2021 as a $22M project with 3 lines and evolved due to increased customer and consumer demand for recycled PET plastic. The 54,000 square foot addition includes four extrusion lines with the ability to expand to six, processing 11.8 billion bottles a year resulting in local capacity of 113 million pounds of food grade PET per year. Evergreen processes 217 million pounds across is four North American facilities.

This expansion was made possible in part by American Beverage Association and the Ohio Beverage Association, in partnership with Closed Loop Partners, who announced in 2021 that Evergreen, would be a recipient of a significant investment under the beverage industry’s Every Bottle Back initiative.

The $5 million investment – half from the American Beverage Association in partnership with Closed Loop Partners and the other half from Closed Loop Partners’ Infrastructure Fund – has helped Evergreen evolve its business model, expanding its services to process recycled PET plastic into food-grade recycled rPET pellets used to manufacture new bottles, while creating a strong local market for recycled plastics.

“The team at Evergreen and our partners Ohio Beverage Association and Closed Loop Partners are looking forward to sharing this expansion project with our customers and community.” said Omar Abuaita, CEO of Evergreen. “What we are doing here reaches beyond Clyde, the state of Ohio, and the US. We are committed to making a global impact to recycling and sustainability. With the financial and strategic support of The Sterling Group, we are able to respond to the demands of the consumer through growth and innovation and are preparing to share a first-of-its-kind industry announcement soon. Without The Sterling Group we would still be a 2-line plant in the middle of Ohio.”

“We’re excited to support Evergreen’s expansion, which will help Ohio’s beverage companies reduce our use of new plastic and keep our 100% recyclable plastic bottles out of the environment. Our industry is committed to using more recycled content in our containers and Evergreen’s bold leadership will help ensure our bottles get remade as intended,” said Kimberly McConville, executive director of the Ohio Beverage Association.

This expansion has resulted in the addition of 20 manufacturing and management jobs in the Sandusky county region. Evergreen employs 350 manufacturing workers, managers, and organizational leaders across four locations in North America – Clyde, Ohio; Riverside, California; Albany, New York; Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada.

"Evergreen’s expansion in Clyde enables the company to establish closer proximity to customers and solidify supply security in times recycled PET (rPET) is scarce or unavailable," said J.P. Nauseef, President and CEO of JobsOhio. "It affirms the company's status as not only one of the largest plastic recyclers in the country, but as a worldwide competitor in recycling.

Evergreen’s web site (evergreentogether.com) contains additional information about the industry, products and services, and the impact of recycling.