Recycler growing bit by bit

The recycling business is not a quiet industry.

On Friday, as an employee of Adirondack Plastics and Recycling Inc. fed hardened, black disks of plastic "drool" onto a conveyer belt, the noise was almost deafening. The belt led to the maw of a giant, 100-horsepower shredder, which chews and grinds plastic of all sorts into pebble-size crumbs.

But crumbs to a visitor are bread and butter to Adirondack Plastics.

The company, which began 17 years ago, had $4.4 million in sales last year. Its unglamorous product now travels the world, with clients in India, China, Taiwan, Korea and South America. And the firm is poised to open a second branch down in South Texas, not far from Brownsville near the Mexican border.

Co-founder and owner John Aspland will be honored for his work Monday in Colonie. He will receive the Exporter of the Year award from the Syracuse District of the U.S. Small Business Administration.

"The fact that a small business in upstate New York can create a significant demand for its product overseas is a testament to Mr. Aspland's creativity and determination," said nominator Robert Miles, vice president of Glens Falls National Bank & Trust Company.

Adirondack has several SBA loans through Glens Falls National, totaling $400,000. The bank nominated the company for a local SBA excellence award in 2006, which the firm also won.

Aspland, 61, a native of Babylon, Suffolk County, moved his family up to Fort Ann in 1983 to open a grocery store. The business was successful, but over the next few years business began to erode due to the growth of convenience stores.

In 1991, Aspland ran into a Long Island friend who made plastic lumber from plastic milk jugs and detergent bottles. The friend asked Aspland for help looking for used bottles. With partners Jack Butler and Rodney Bobbins, Aspland started the company, warehousing the bottles in his barn.

They bought their first plastic grinder two years later and set it up in Moreau. Aspland soon sold the grocery business and bought out his recycling partners.

This business is a pretty simple concept -- pay businesses for their plastic (and, later, paper) waste that would otherwise have to be carried away by an expensive hauler. Adirondack Plastic resells the ground plastic to manufacturers who melt it down and reuse it for new products.

The company grew steadily, expanding first to Hudson Falls and then to a Fort Edward building in 2002. That 32,000-square-foot warehouse now houses Adirondack's paper recycling operation.

In 2005, Tyco International Ltd. moved its catheter manufacturing operation from Argyle to Mexico. Aspland, who was doing recycling work for them, drove by to say goodbye to the workers when he found out the company had failed to sell the building and was even considering demolishing it.

Aspland made them an offer, and bought what had been selling for $1.2 million for $350,000. Today, the 70,000-square-foot building is cluttered with a random assortment of boxes and pallets of products waiting to be chewed up and spat out.

"This is like a living organism," said Aspland during a tour, noting how quickly the materials move through his processing equipment.

Since September, Aspland has been spending time in McAllen, Texas, where he plans to take delivery on a new grinder later this month.

"We see huge potential down there to provide the services we have," he said. "There's great work for us."

That region is home to well over a dozen major manufacturers, both on the United States and Mexican sides. Aspland has leased a space and has already bought a house, with the expectation of spending two weeks down there and two up in Washington County each month. The company, now at 26 employees locally, could see its staff eventually double as the Texas operation grows to the capacity of the local one, Aspland said.

Keith Christman, senior director of packaging at the American Chemistry Council in Arlington, Va., said Adirondack was part of a growing business. On the consumer side alone, American companies recycle 2 billion pounds of plastic bottles and 812 million pounds of plastic bags and films. The post-industrial side of plastic recycling could be even larger, he said.

"It is growing dramatically," Christman said. "People recognize that plastic materials are too valuable to waste. There's a lot of incentive to recycle."