INDIANAPOLIS (July 22, 2:35 p.m. ET) -- With a focus on cross-contaminated polymers and industrial plastic scrap that many consider unusable, privately owned plastics separation company Butler-MacDonald Inc. has both grown and prospered during the difficult economic times for the recycling industry the past two years.

“Our average revenue growth over the past seven years is 25 percent,” said Grant Gilmore, business development specialist at Indianapolis-based Butler-MacDonald. “We process 30-35 million pounds annually.”

In the last two years, Butler-MacDonald has expanded its manufacturing plant and warehouse facility by 40 percent, and upgraded its processing capabilities by adding $2.3 million in new equipment, including two new melt filtration systems to extrude pellets from regrind, and a large shredder for size reduction, Gilmore said.

That has triggered an increase of 50 percent in the workforce in the last year, he added.

“We were already doing size reduction and plastics separation,” Gilmore said. “This [new equipment] enabled us to deal with a wider range of plastic feed streams to provide clean regrind or pellets. Having all of our processes under one roof allows us to be a one-stop shop.”

Gilmore said the additional equipment “adds to the value we offer,” and further helps Butler-MacDonald recover the highest possible value from plastic. “If we can recover a higher-purity polymer, our customers can better use the scrap they generate and that will translate to a significant cost savings for them,” he said.

The company uses proprietary processes for separation developed by president and CEO J. Scott Johnson, whose father founded the company 27 years ago. “Our proprietary technology is designed to remove a variety of contaminants including commingled resins, color defects, metal (both ferrous and non-ferrous), wood, dirt, dust, rocks, and paper,” said Gilmore.

Butler-MacDonald processes more polystyrene than any other polymer. But it also processes significant amounts of polyethylene, polypropylene, polycarbonate, PET, PVC, ABS and nylon. Gilmore said 90 percent of the company’s business is toll processing for OEMs with whom it has developed closed-loop recovery partnerships.

Butler-MacDonald focuses on separating mixed plastics, hard-to-recycle materials and recovering plastic from packaged assemblies, housings, vinyl window profiles, automotive parts, start-up scrap, ground spill, silo contamination, manufacturing rejects, and end of life products, he said.

“We want to help our customers better utilize their material, achieve sustainability initiatives and offset their prime resin expenditures,” Gilmore said.