Georgia Pacific’s (Atlanta, Ga.; www.gp.com) GP Harmon Recycling (www.gpharmon.com) has announced the asset acquisition of The Highlands Group, Inc.’s plastics recycling facility located in Elizabethton, Tenn. The acquisition marks GP Harmon Recycling’s official entrance into plastics recycling processing.
GP Harmon Recycling currently trades in various recyclable plastics, and with this acquisition GP Harmon Recycling now has the capability to separate various polymers (such as gallon milk jugs, detergent bottles, and bottle caps) from mixed material streams to generate high-grade plastic raw materials that can be used for a variety of commercial purposes. GP Harmon Recycling has grown considerably in the last few years – from its start in the mid-1960s as a small regional wastepaper broker in the Northeast to one of the largest pure traders of recycled fiber in the world – trading more than 7 million metric tons per year (m.t./yr). In 2007, the company expanded its portfolio of products to include non-fiber material such as plastics and metal. Today, GP Harmon transacts more than 100,000 metric tons of non-paper recyclable material, making it one of the largest recyclable commodities traders in the world.