News & Press

SPE's Plastics Environmental Division Announces 2007 Environmental Award Winners

March 5, 2007 - Orlando, FL - The Plastics Environmental Division of the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) is pleased to announce the winners of the 2007 Plastics Recycling and Sustainability Awards, to be awarded Wednesday, March 7th, during SPE's Global Plastics & Environmental Conference (GPEC®) being held March 6-7th at the Florida Hotel & Conference Center in Orlando.

Through these awards, SPE's Plastics Environmental Division recognizes corporations and other institutions that have demonstrated environmental leadership and excellence through significant achievements in a variety of environmentally responsible categories. The 2007 winners in the following categories include:

• New Technologies in Processes: GE Plastics of Mt. Vernon, IN, for their Valox iQ* and Xenox iQ* Resins, which are synthesized from used plastic PET beverage bottles, helping conserve oil and lowering emissions through more efficient manufacturing.
• New Technologies in Materials: Cereplast, Inc. of Hawthorne, CA, for their proprietary bio-based resins, which are used as substitutes for petroleum-based plastics offering price stability and competitive costs compared to traditional resins.
• New Technologies in Renewables: InterfaceFABRIC of Grand Rapids, MI, for their Biobased Fabric Composting Project, in which the company’s bio-based Terratex® fabrics were transformed into a compost material that is suitable as a high quality soil amendment that can be sold to local landscape companies.
• Design for Sustainability: Battelle Memorial Institute and Ohio Soybean Council of Columbus, OH, and Advanced Image Resources, LLC of Alpharetta, GA, for their bio-based resins and toners that provide users with seamless, environmentally friendly printing and copying alternatives.
• Emerging Technologies: Cargill, Inc. of Wayzata, MN, for their Bio-based Polyols-BiOH™, which are used in major urethane applications, including flexible foams, and offer unique advantages over petroleum-based foams.
• Enabling Technologies in Processes & Procedures: Argonne National Laboratory of Argonne, IL, along with the USCAR Vehicle Recycling Partnership, and the Plastics Division of the American Chemical Council, teamed together to develop End-of-Life Vehicle (ELV) Recycle Technologies that enable the optimum recycling of plastics and other materials from ELV’s.
• Plastics Recycling: Los Angeles Fiber Company of Vernon, CA, for their recycling and recovery of Post Consumer Carpets (PCC) in which their production process, logistics system and sales programs all work together to divert 100 million pounds per year of post consumer carpet from our nation’s landfills.
• Plastics Recycling: Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies (AERT), Inc. of Springdale, AR, for their composite building materials from recycled polyethylene and wood, which can be used as an alterative to traditional wood products for exterior applications such as decking, trim, fencing, and door and window components.
• Dan Eberhardt Memorial Environmental Stewardship: Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) of Dalton, GA, for their post-consumer carpet recycling, in which the recovery, reuse, and recycling of discarded post-consumer carpet is made possible before it finds its way into America’s landfills.

For More Information Contact:
Tracy Hartman
978.462.0002
thartman@aloftgroup.com