In 2020, PSC Group began offering an array of innovative sustainability services and solutions to help plastics manufacturers achieve their sustainability goals and improve compliance with Operation Clean Sweep® (OCS) environmental stewardship principles.
The company built a special purpose fleet of high-dump vacuum trucks and mobile packaging units (MPUs) to service major polyethylene, polypropylene and polyvinyl chloride plants to help them keep their facilities clean and salvage more scrap for reuse.
Since launching this new line of business, PSC has invested in three scrap-plastic processing facilities and opened a new 200,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility in Baytown, Texas, to provide advanced plastics recycling services.
"These processing and recycling facilities allow us to really upgrade the scrap and convert it to its highest and best use," said PSC CEO Joel Dickerson.
From scrap to schoolyard
PSC's sustainability efforts are already producing impactful and encouraging results, including improvements to a local elementary school in Texas. Plastic that was once nothing more than trash swept up from a warehouse floor is now being used to manufacture critical infrastructure. "This journey from trash to pipes is quite interesting," said Dickerson.
The James H. Ross Elementary School in League City, Texas, is one of the oldest schools in the Clear Creek Independent School District. During the summer of 2022, a major renovation project got underway to add more parking, a new library and upgraded classroom technology. The facility upgrades also included installation of a new storm drainage system. The pipes used in the new drainage system were made from recycled plastic originating from PSC's sustainability program.
"PSC Group has been a longtime community partner for Ross Elementary, supporting our students and staff in invaluable ways through the years," said Principal Kelly Mooney. "During our recent renovations, it was exciting to learn that our partnership would quite literally be cemented in the dirt beneath our school, as the drainage pipes that were installed are a product of PSC's commitment to plastics recycling."
When renovations are completed next year, the school will have improved drainage, additional parking, a new library and upgraded instructional areas..
When renovations are completed next year, the school will have improved drainage, additional parking, a new library and upgraded instructional areas..
The plastic used in those pipes began its journey as industrial scrap or trash, generated through normal manufacturing processes. Not long ago, this scrap would have been landfilled, but it is now being reprocessed and reused in a variety of ways.
"We work with manufacturers to collect plastic waste and haul it to one of our sustainability warehouses in the U.S. Gulf Coast region where it is analyzed by experts to determine how it can best be recycled," said Gene Theriot, director of sustainability operations for PSC.
Once the plastic waste is sorted and cleaned, PSC uses specialized equipment and advanced recycling processes to melt and blend the scrap with other compatible materials, such as plastic totes, drums, medicine bottles, film, etc. The materials are reformulated into new custom compounds with specific chemical properties that can be used to manufacture a wide range of products for industrial and consumer use.
"Like the drainage pipes used in the Ross Elementary renovations, more and more products are now being made with post-industrial recycled plastics. It's a great story, and we're excited about the opportunities we have here at PSC to transform plastics recycling and dramatically reduce the amount of waste going to landfills," said Chris Lendo, VP of sustainability for PSC.
"As a long-time League City resident whose children attended Ross Elementary, it's especially gratifying to me to see our hard work in sustainability make a difference close to home," added Dickerson.
For more information, visit pscgroup.com or call (281) 991-3500.
