A company with ties to South Africa will build a $24.2 million plastic film recycling plant in Minnesota with some local help.

Myplas USA Inc. is teaming with MBOLD, a coalition of Minnesota companies, researchers and nonprofit groups, to establish the new location in Rogers, a suburb in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area.

Film manufacturer Charter Next Generation also will purchase resin recycled by Myplas USA to create new products.

"This has been a very unique project to put together and we've done it," Myplas USA CEO Andrew Pieterse said. "Now we're all very excited about turning spreadsheets into bricks and mortar."

Pieterse is such a believer that he not only invested in the new project but also quit what he described as a good job with oil and gas company BP plc last fall to head up the effort.

"I frankly saw this vision and wanted to — felt like I had to — be part of this project and this change," he said. "When it feels right, it feels right. … October was a leap of faith and now it's reality."

But before Pieterse could get too excited about the project coming together, he said he had to remind himself that now is when the real work begins.

That includes renovating a 170,000-square-foot former distribution center, installing equipment and hiring employees with an expectation of beginning production next spring.

Myplas initially will install two lines to handle both high and low density polyethylene films — food grade for HDPE, nonfood grade of LDPE. The facility, once full, will have capacity of 90 million pounds and include six or seven lines.

For Charter Next Generation, the opportunity to be involved makes perfect sense, CEO Kathy Bolhous said.

Her film company already makes products containing post-consumer recycled resin, so the opportunity to tap into Myplas for more feedstock will help the firm increase that content.

Charter Next Generation has a network of four manufacturing sites in nearby Wisconsin where the output from Myplas will likely go, the CEO said.

Consumer products companies General Mills Inc. and Schwan's Co. are joining Next Generation as lead investors in providing $9.2 million for the project. Target Corp. and Ecolab are supporting investors, MBOLD said. The Alliance to End Plastic Waste and Closed Loop Partners, two efforts that help support plastic recycling, also are providing debt financing.

Combining these companies behind one project is "really the first of its kind collaboration across the value chain to create a circular economy for flexible films," Bolhous said.

"Charter Next Generation is very passionate about sustainability, and we have been leading in sustainability for many years. We really wanted to ensure we are creating a circular economy for films. So we recognized we're going to have to do things differently. And in order to make this work, there's going to need to be some collaboration," she said.

Infrastructure for flexible film recycling is lacking in the United States, Bolhous said. "It's going to take a lot of infrastructure and future funding to be able to really recycle flexible films and repurpose them for the sake of the environment."

Apurva Shah is senior marketing manager at Charter Next Generation and said his company was quick to raise a hand to become part of the project.

"This is really the first time brands, an innovative recycler and a leading processor like us have all come together," he said. "To us, it is a really valuable model that we wish to replicate over time."

Bolhous agreed this project will set the stage for future collaborations that bring forces together to find recycling solutions for flexibles.

Charter Next Generation has agreed to purchase most of the recycled resin produced by Myplas in Minnesota for two years after operations begin, the company said.

Myplas USA's corporate parent MRI Investments Inc. also operates plastics recycler Myplas (PTY) Ltd. of Cape Town, South Africa.

JoAnne Berkenkamp is managing director of MBOLD, the consortium that helped bring about the project and an arm of Minneapolis St. Paul Regional Economic Development Partnership. "We are building a regional ecosystem to support circular approaches for flexible film. We are catalyzing a new circular economy that will expand access to film recycling in the Upper Midwest, increase the supply of recycled resin," she said in a statement.

MBOLD members including Cargill Inc., General Mills, Schwan's, Land O'Lakes Inc. and the University of Minnesota will all evaluate product applications using recycled resin. And Land O'Lakes, Cargill, Schwan's and the university also will consider sending film waste to Myplas.

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