Recycling industry representatives suggest that the tide is turning, with export demand building up slowly and domestic demand finally stabilizing. And unlike other sectors of the economy, most recycling companies seem to have weathered the rough times and stayed in business.
Standing in a sparse warehouse in a Plum industrial park, surrounded by stacks of used televisions and computers, Ned Eldridge has a vision for an electronics recycling business that will not only prove profitable, but will end up helping the environment. Eldridge is president of eLoop LLC of Murrysville, which collects used electronic equipment — such as computers, fax machines, cell phones, laser printers and televisions — and tries to keep hazardous materials out of landfills by refurbishing discards for resale, or disassembling them for further processing by other recyclers.
By the end of the year a Fortune Global 500 company and the nation’s third-largest auto parts supplier will call Puyallup home. Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics announced in February that it would relocate its Seattle’s Rainier Valley neighborhood plant to Puyallup along with 115 employees. The plastics company is a division of French-based Saint-Gobain, which ranks 110th on this year’s list of Fortune Global 500 businesses. Saint-Gobain generated nearly $60 billion in revenue last year and $2 billion in profits.
Attendance at this year's NPE09 plastics industry tradeshow in Chicago was down 30% from three years ago to 42,000, but the show's sponsor, the Society of the Plastics Industry, remains optimistic about the tradeshow's relevance to plastics industry businesses.
The Farrel Corp. has called Ansonia, Conn., home since its founding before the Civil War, but now the business is looking to relocate -- possibly to Shelton.
As the auto industry continues to erode, three of Columbia, Mo.’s four auto parts manufacturers — Engineered Plastic, Dana Corp. and Otscon Inc. — have been forced to cut costs. Parts suppliers across the country have been hobbled by depressed auto sales and production shutdowns at both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler.
The auto-industry meltdown is forcing a transformation among automotive suppliers, which are slowly diversifying into more-promising markets such as medical devices and green energy.
