ACI Plastics to invest $4M in recycling facility

ACI Plastics, a thermoplastics processor and recycler with headquarters in Flint, Michigan, has established operations in South Carolina’s Pickens County to recycle postindustrial and preconsumer scrap from molders throughout the Southeast. The company’s $4 million investment will create 21 new jobs, according to a news release from the office of South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster.

For more than 35 years, ACI Plastics has been known for its separation technologies for paint removal and instrument panels, as well as density, electrostatic and optical separation. 

The site, at 225 Ruhamah Rd. in Liberty, South Carolina, initially will provide size reduction (granulation) and proprietary separation processes. ACI plans to add blending, density separation, pelletizing and postconsumer processing capabilities at the facility.

ACI Plastics President Scott Melton says, “The 138,000-square-foot building on 51 acres will allow us to significantly grow over the next decade. The access to a solid workforce, the Port of Charleston and nearby customers made this investment a key part of ACI’s future.”

“Pickens County Council is proud to welcome ACI Plastics South, the industry leader in separating even the most difficult plastics, to our county,” Pickens County Council Chairman Chris Bowers says. “Our skilled local workforce is consistently an asset sought out by top-tier companies such as ACI, and we are pleased that ACI found the perfect site location to meet their needs here in the Liberty community.”

ACI previously partnered with Los Angeles-based PreZero US, the recycling arm of German retailer Schwarz Group, to operate a site in Westminster, South Carolina, to recycle polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP) scrap recovered from mixed rigid plastics bales. That relationship ended last year, and PreZero US announced its plans to invest $11.5 million in the Westminster plant, formerly owned by ACI, to bring its processing capacity up to 40,000 tons of plastic scrap per year.