IRG names CEO of startup plastics recycling business

International Recycling Group (IRG), a recycling startup company based in Erie, Pennsylvania, has appointed Chris Dow as its chief executive officer. Dow will be responsible for developing the postuse plastics sorting facility, which the company has dubbed a “SuperPRF” (plastics recovery facility).

IRG had announced plans to construct the facility Aug. 18, with a goal of starting operations in 2022. The facility will process more than 500 million pounds of postuse residential, industrial and commercial plastics each year, IRG reports in a news release.

IRG reports that Dow has worked in the recycling industry for more than 20 years, holding executive leadership roles at Closed Loop Recycling in Australia and the U.K. as well as being director at the Resource Association and deputy chairman of the Plastics Recyclers Europe PET group.

“We are fortunate to have an experienced recycling leader like Chris to guide the company toward fulfilling its tremendous potential. As a pioneering recycling executive with extensive international experience, Dow understands the global recycling landscape,” says Mitch Hecht, IRG’s founder and chairman. “We are more than confident that he, along with our new executive team, will realize IRG’s vision of 100 percent utilization of postuse plastics for best and highest value.”

“I’m thrilled to have this amazing opportunity and to work with our industry partners to lead such a groundbreaking environmental effort,” Dow says. “It’s a time of great change in the plastics recycling industry with a growing need for infrastructure that helps society positively solve a major issue. I’m confident that we are on the brink of revolutionary growth in postuse resin recovery.

“What makes me excited about this opportunity is that IRG is aspiring to implement a highly scalable 100 percent plastics sorting solution with relatively simple, proven technologies; driven by long-term price fundamentals. We want to support and respond to the rapidly emerging downstream recycling technologies that will pull through the sustainable utilization of all resin categories.”