Paper

GLR sells paper recycling plants

Roseville, Michigan-based GLR Advanced Recycling has sold all of its paper recycling operations, citing a “good opportunity.”

GLR CEO Sandy Rosen says in June 2017 the company sold two paper processing plants, one each in the Michigan cities of Flint and Northville, to Toronto-based GFL Environmental Inc. (GFL), an environmental services firm. July 31, 2017, GLR sold its last paper recycling facility, in Tonawanda, New York, to Royal Oak Recycling, Royal Oak, Michigan.

Rizzo Environmental Services Inc., Sterling Heights, Michigan, acquired Royal Oak Recycling in 2013. In late 2016, GFL completed the acquisition of Rizzo and its subsidiary companies with a newly formed U.S. subsidiary of GFL, called GFL-USA.

Rosen says GFL initially approached GLR Advanced Recycling about purchasing the company’s two paper recycling plants in Michigan. “I didn’t want to be left with one paper plant 275 miles away from our headquarters, so I said I’m not interested in selling the two plants nearby and keeping the one that’s far away,” he explains. “We worked it out.”

GLR Advanced Recycling will continue to operate its brokerage business.

Ed Mamou, vice president of Royal Oak, says the acquisition made sense as the company already has a footprint in the Buffalo area.

Royal Oak collects newspaper in the Buffalo market. Mamou says the company was using third parties to process the recovered paper, “which did a good job of processing our material, but with the current climate with the export markets we wanted to be sure to be able to do that long-term.”

“We can now process our own tons and keep growing,” says Craig Reeves, director of operations for Royal Oak.