only 4% of the huge amount of
plastics discarded each year in the
United States is recycled. This is beginning to
change.
In 1994, Mike Biddle, a former PhD engineer
with Dow Chemical, and Trip Allen
founded MBA Polymers, Inc. Their goal was
to develop a commercial process for recycling
high-value plastics from complex streams of
goods such as computers, electronics, appliances,
and automobiles. They succeeded
by designing a 21-step automated process
that separates plastics from nonplastic items
in mixed waste streams, and then separates
plastics from each other by type and grade
and converts them to pellets that can be
used to make new products.