When he wanted to take his company in a new direction

Tag : padding cloth
Palmdale may join Recycling Market Development Zone This story appeared in the Antelope Valley Press
Monday, July 21, 2008.
By JAMES RUFUS KOREN
Valley Press Staff Writer
PALMDALE - When he wanted to take his company in a new direction -recycling carpet instead of cloth - Ron Greitzer needed help. Andmoney.
"We had to develop machines for recycling carpet," he said. "Thathad never existed before."
In 1995, his Vernon-based company, Los Angeles Fiber, got a $1million low-interest loan to buy equipment, and Greitzer got helpfinding clients.
His businesses is within one of California's Recycling MarketDevelopment Zones, giving it access to below-market rate loans andother assistance. Palmdale may soon join other areas of Los AngelesCounty in such a zone.
"It was fantastic," Greitzer said. "They helped me develop my Website, they helped me get target lists of potential customers andsuppliers using databases the state has access to that I don't."
Now, Greitzer says, Los Angeles Fiber is the largest carpetrecycler in the world. To be eligible for assistance through therecycling zone program, companies have to use waste material tomanufacture their products. Los Angeles Fiber, for example, turnsused carpet into carpet padding and into resins used by plasticsmanufacturers.
Palmdale wanted to become part of the recycling zone to help createa local market for recyclables in the city, said Ben Lucha, ananalyst with the city Public Works department.
"In order to encourage and increase the amount of recycling we doas a city, there needs to be a demand for recyclables," Lucha aid."Just putting something in the (recycling) container isn't enough.You have to create the demand."
Lucha said the city's inclusion in the recycling zone - the movealready has been approved by Los Angeles County, which oversees theprogram locally, but still needs state approval - also will helpencourage new businesses to start and other businesses to startusing waste materials.
"It's a win-win situation," Lucha said. "We're looking at perhapsbeing approved and annexed into the zone in September."
The program started in 1993 and, in Los Angeles County, has made 20loans to 14 different companies, totaling $12.5 million, saidHossam Banna, a civil engineer with the county Department of PublicWorks.
The recycling zones not only help businesses, but they help thestate meet its goal of reducing the amount of waste going tolandfills, Banna said.
"We're diverting much more solid waste," Banna said, notingcompanies using the low-interest state loans are recyclingeverything from carpet to glass bottles.
One recycling zone company in Northern California, called Fire andLight, turns old glass bottles into vases and other home décoritems.
"It's not always industrial," said Jennifer Wallin, a spokeswomanfor the California Integrated Waste Management Board, which runsthe recycling zone program. "People are finding creative things todo with it, too."
jkoren@avpress.com