Nonmetallics

GREENMAN DELAYS ANNUAL FILING

Tire recycler GreenMan Technologies, Lynnfield, Mass., has said that it is delaying the filing of its Form 10-KSB for its fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005.

The delay will be no longer than 30 days as GreenMan finalizes the accounting treatment of the pending divestiture of its Georgia operating assets, according to the company.

"Due to the magnitude of the operating losses incurred by our Georgia subsidiary, management adopted a plan in September 2005 to dispose of all Georgia operating assets," Chuck Coppa, GreenMan CFO, says in a press release. "Accordingly, we have written down these assets to their estimated fair market value and anticipate recording an estimated non-cash loss on disposal of between $2.5 and $3.5 million at Sept. 30, 2005."

In addition to the Georgia divestiture, GreenMan also divested its Tennessee operations on Sept. 13, 2005. The company estimates the loss on disposal from the Tennessee divesture to be $416,000 for the fiscal year.

"We estimate the aggregate net loss for the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, 2005, to be between $14 million and $15 million as compared to approximately $2.6 million for the year ended Sept. 30, 2004," Coppa says.

ITEC PLANT OPENS

Itec Environmental Group Inc. has announced that its Riverbank, Calif., plastic recycling plant has begun operations.

The company anticipates that the plant will be fully operational and producing recycled PET and HDPE early this year.

Once Itec completes testing procedures in late January, the company says it believes the Riverbank plant will be operational and processing post-consumer PET and HDPE plastics, producing food-grade flake at the rate of 2,100 pounds per hour. The company will then increase production throughout the next few months and expects to reach a capacity of 6,000 pounds per hour during the third quarter of 2006. Itec anticipates that the plastic produced by the plant will sell for about 55 cents per pound.

WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM HONORS MBA POLYMERS 
AS TECH PIONEER

fla

Biddle

The World Economic Forum, Geneva, has selected Richmond, Calif.-based MBA Polymers as one of its Technology Pioneers for 2006.

The forum has identified 36 companies as "developing and applying highly transformational and innovative technologies in the areas of energy, biotechnology and health and information technology," according to a release from the World Economic Forum and MBA Polymers. The companies’ work also has potential long-term affects on business and society.

MBA Polymers is a world leader at developing and commercializing technology to recycle mixed plastics streams, such as those coming from end-of-life electronics, toys, appliances and automobiles.

The company’s automated process, which it developed during the last 12 years, uses more than 30 individual operations to sort mixed material streams into their constituent parts, such as ferrous metals, nonferrous metals and numerous types of plastics.

Mike Biddle, CEO and founder of MBA Polymers Inc., says, "The announcement of this honor is quite timely for our company as we are in the midst of an ambitious and rapid international expansion and we believe that we are on the verge of making a very significant economic and environmental difference in the plastics world."

In early 2004 MBA launched a majority-owned joint venture in China with Guangzhou Iron and Steel Enterprises, resulting in a 40,000-ton-per-year plant in Guangzhou that opened in November. In late 2004 MBA launched a majority-owned JV in Europe with Mueller-Guttenbrunn. The 40,000-ton-per-year plant in Kematen, Austria, is expected to open in early 2006.

Technology Pioneer selection criteria include innovation, potential impact, growth and sustainability, proof of concept and leadership.

February 2006
Explore the February 2006 Issue

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.