Construction Begins On World's First Large-Scale Nylon Recycling Facility
9 July 1998
Construction Begins On World's First Large-Scale Nylon Recycling Facility
AUGUSTA, Ga.--July 9, 1998--Evergreen Nylon Recycling llc, the joint venture between AlliedSignal Inc. and DSM Chemicals North America, Inc., has broken ground on an innovative new nylon recycling facility that is the first of its kind in the world. The $80 million facility, which will keep more than 200 million pounds of carpet out of landfills each year, will be completed in the fall of 1999.The Evergreen venture is based on jointly developed, patented technology that converts nylon carpet into caprolactam, the basic raw material used to make type 6 nylon. Type 6 nylon is used in a wide range of applications in which performance and aesthetics are required, such as carpet and engineering plastics for automobile parts.
The new facility in Augusta, Georgia, USA will produce 100 million pounds per year of high-quality caprolactam. It will eventually employ 75 people and create hundreds of additional local jobs in supporting industries such as construction, engineering and site services.
"This is a landmark day," said Dave Mezzanotte, AlliedSignal's vice president and general manager of Chemical Intermediates, and Evergreen's general manager. "This facility will enable us to do something that's never been done before, anywhere. We can make a nylon product live forever.
"When its useful life as a carpet, for instance, is over, we can take it up from your home, throw the whole thing into our patented recycling process, recover the base chemical and make a brand new car part or any nylon product we want," Mezzanotte said. "And if we didn't tell you, you'd never know it was a recycled product because it has the same aesthetics and performance of nylon made from scratch."
According to Bill Price, president of DSM Chemicals North America, the industry calls this kind of system "post-consumer, closed loop." It involves a product already used by consumers that gets continually re-used without waste requiring disposal.
"The new facility will also save 4.9 trillion BTUs each year compared with conventional caprolactam production," added Price. "That's enough power to heat 100,000 medium-sized homes for a year.
"AlliedSignal and DSM scientists discovered the magic formula," said Price, "that allows us to break down nylon products using a very efficient chemical process. Type-6 nylon has a unique molecular structure that makes this easier to do than with other materials. The economics are such that it's one of those unique opportunities in which an environmental venture is a viable business venture. We're very proud and excited that this day has finally come."
The partners have also developed and patented a device that, when applied to the surface of a carpet, can identify the fiber makeup. The device uses laser technology to help sort out the desirable type-6 nylon from other carpet types. Evergreen hopes to adapt its process in the near future to accept entire auto parts, such as bumpers, grill racks and air intake manifolds.
Evergreen Nylon Recycling llc, is a 50/50 manufacturing joint venture between AlliedSignal Inc. and DSM Chemicals North America. Evergreen, with headquarters in Augusta, Georgia, is the world leader in nylon recycling.
DSM Chemicals North America, Inc. (Augusta, Georgia) is the North American operation of DSM Fiber Intermediates, a business group of DSM N.V. (Heerlen, The Netherlands). This group manufacturers and markets raw materials for nylons, with caprolactam as its most important product.
DSM N.V. is a highly integrated industrial group whose main activity is in chemicals and materials. The DSM group includes a large number of companies with 18,000 employees, most of whom are based in Europe and the United States.
Annual sales are approximately $6 billion, of which nearly $1 billion are in the United States. Information about DSM is available on the internet at http://www.dsm.nl
AlliedSignal Polymers is a strategic business unit of AlliedSignal Inc., an advanced technology and manufacturing company serving customers worldwide with aerospace and automotive products, fibers, chemicals, plastics and advanced materials. The Polymers unit is a world leader in nylon, polyester and polyethylene fibers, resin and film used in a wide variety of applications, such as rugged outdoor equipment, high-performing sporting products, high-strength packaging, innovative automotive parts, and bullet-resistant armor.
AlliedSignal Inc.'s 1997 sales were $14.5 billion, placing it in Fortune's Top 100 companies in the United States. The company, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, has some 70,000 employees at 300 facilities in 40 countries. Information about AlliedSignal is available at http://www.alliedsignal.com