Portland firm finds niche recycling foam plastics

Daily Journal of Commerce (Portland, OR), Feb 11, 2004 by Ray Hughey

John Gogol likens his business to a microbrewery. Instead of lagers and ales, he brews plastics.

Through his company, PC Plastics, Gogol processes and recycles polystyrene plastics and foam blocks into more plastic, which he then sells to be made into televisions and computers.

PC Plastic's 12,000-square-foot plant opened this past July in a Northwest Portland industrial park. Since then, the plant has doubled its recycling volume each month. It currently recycles 50,000 pounds per month, but Gogol would like to hit a monthly goal of 350,000 pounds, which he says will allow him to supply big electronics manufacturers.

He processes No. 6 polystyrene plastic, which is used to make everything from television cabinets and computer-monitor cases to packing and food and beverage containers. Its most widely recognized form is the Styrofoam-trademarked brand of plastic foam used for packaging and cups.

We're an engineering company, Gogol said. We're just trying to develop a system to recycle it efficiently.

Most of the polystyrene dropped off at the plant comes in truckloads. One of the company's new commercial customers, for example, plans to deliver about 1,000 pounds every other day.

Last month, PC Plastics accepted for free and processed all the foam-block packing collected in a one-day drive by the city of Vancouver, Wash. The company will do the same for an upcoming Earth Day project at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

It's growing, Gogol said. I don't have to search for it. People seem to find me.

About 75 percent of the material the company receives is foam plastic. The remainder is from electronics products.

Most of the polystyrene comes crushed. Gogol mixes it with cleaners and special additives. The processed plastic is then extruded and chopped into hard, pea-sized pellets.

It's like running it through a food processor, then a pasta machine and chopping up the plastic noodles, Gogol said.

It was while working at Epson Co. as a procurement manager ordering plastic printers that Gogol first realized the United States was sitting on the largest garbage dump of styrene in the world - and very little was being done to recycle it. He saw a way to make money while reducing landfill waste.

And if helping the environment isn't enough, there's another incentive for Gogol's customers. The drop-off fee he charges to take in their plastics is half that of what landfills charge to accept the material.