“The green movement is a growth engine,” said Adam Melton, co-owner of EnviroPackaging Solutions in Temple. “Everybody wants to get on the bandwagon.”
After spending previous years working for a paper company and distributing nonreusable plastics with deliveries, Corby Dodge, CEO of EnviroPackaging Solutions, stopped to think of the impact and what the world would be like for his three young children in years to come.
“I thought, what do we need to do to make my kids have a world to grow up in that’s not filled with plastics and unrecyclable products,” he said.
After realizing he could make a difference, he teamed with Adam Melton and his father, Thomas Melton, to make a green business a reality.
After only one year in Temple, EnviroPackaging Solutions is preserving landfill space one plastic bottle at a time.
While EnviroPackaging Solutions may have a hold on green packaging, IntegriCo Composites CEO Mike Miller believes his company is the greenest of them all.
IntegriCo Composites is on a mission to clear the ever-growing piles of industrial waste plastic from landfills and use them to create plastic railroad ties.
Miller estimates the company has saved more than 2,000 tons of plastic from being dumped in landfills. And it’s only been in full production for two months.
“Plastic in a landfill lasts forever,” Miller said.
Plus, he noted the plastic is an oil-based product.
“In a world where oil is scarce, it’s a good thing,” he said.
Reducing PVC
EniviroPackaging Solutions specializes in reducing polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, from the planet by producing Eco-friendly packaging.
PVC is a nonreusable plastic that is considered “one of the most potent synthetic chemicals ever tested,” according to Be SafeNet.com, a Web site advocating for alternatives to PVC.
It states that PVC can cause cancer and harm the immune and reproductive systems when produced or burned.
Dodge said companies in Europe are forced to pay a 17 percent tariff for PVC products, in an effort to discourage non-biodegradable products from anchoring in landfills.
Rather than using PVC, the company uses minimal amounts of recycled plastic from bottles and 100 percent biodegradable cardboard to mount merchandise.
“It shrinks the plastic consumption,” Adam Melton said. “What you’re doing is reducing the waste.”
The final part of the process seals cardboard to cardboard with a water-based adhesive that is “100 percent friendly,” said Melton.
“Not only is it better material, it’s less material,” Melton said.
The company produces packaging for big name brands such as Panasonic, Sony, even Apple is on board the green train.
Designers with EnviroPackaging Solutions are manufacturing a package for Apple’s iPod and iPod Nano for sale in club stores.
About 10,000 units are shipped out each week, and Dodge only foresees an upward climb.
By February, Dodge predicts the company will produce more than 150,000 units a month. And over time, he hopes to reach a company goal by shipping 200,000 units each week.
“People say, ‘We want to be more environmentally friendly but we don’t know how,” Dodge said. “That’s where we come in.”
The company boasts about stopping 118 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from manifesting in the air.
To put it in perspective, that would be the equivalent to 26 passenger cars not being driven for a year equaling 13,440 gallons of gasoline, which is 274 barrels of oil.
Overall 40 tons of waste is recycled instead of resting in landfills.
“We are the only sustainable package, 100 percent, in the world,” Dodge said.
Tackling Ties
IntegriCo Composites is ready to tackle the 20 million railroad ties needing replacement each year with nearly 400 tons of granulated recycled plastic on stock currently - the equivalent of 20 18-wheeler truckloads.
“Railroad ties have to be replaced every seven to 10 years,” Miller said. “We’re looking to last three to five times longer than that.”
What’s unique about Miller’s production is the railroad ties created can use mixed and contaminated plastics, which often contain traces of metal, glass and fiberglass. Miller said few companies can make use of those plastics. He is one of the few.
Miller’s business plan didn’t stem from the thought of a green world.
“That was just an extra benefit,” Miller said. “When I went to raise money, funded by private investors, it was a very strong selling point.”
“Everybody just gets excited about it.”
IntegriCo Composites’ mission statement is to be the largest company in the world that uses waste plastics. And right now, it’s lingering a few spots below the top.
“We think we’re going to get there,” Miller said. “But we’re about as green as you can get.”
lfrase@temple-telegram.com
