Purple is the NEW Green
Greenstar's Colorful Method
By: Megan Greenwalt
Waste and Recycling News
June 21, 2010
Waste & Recycling News celebrates its 15th year of business by profiling 15 dynamic businesses that "reflect the entrepreneurial spirit that is the lifeblood of the industry."
By promoting "purple as the new green," Greenstar has quickly established itself as a player in the recycling industry in North America.
"Purple is our distinctive corporate color, and we want it to represent our passion, enthusiasm and commitment to recycling in teh local communities we serve," said Matt Delnick, who was recently named CEO of the company.
Greenstar provides sustainable recycling solutions in the recycle processing, commodity upgrading, managing services and commodity trading sectors of the solid waste market. The company also handles two million tons of recyclables per year, Delnick said.
"I feel like there is still tremendous growth and opportunity for recycling in America - and that we're making a positive impact in the communities that we serve," Delnick said.
The recycler, based in Houston, entered the U.S. market in 2007. With its parent company NTR, Greenstar originally launched in Ireland in 1999.
"Although we are a young company in the U.S., we have partnered with and acquired businesses with roots tracing back 100 years in the recycling business," Delnick said. "Greenstar is setting the standard in recycling. This means that we are delivering a consistent, high quality and professional recycling service to our customers. Our standards are high and we deliver results."
The company’s goal is to become America’s recycling leader.
“We plan to achieve this through a three-tiered commitment to people, investment and innovation,” Delnick said. “We want to continue to attract and partner with leading individuals and companies in the recycling sector.
“Unlike many of our competitors, recycling is Greenstar’s core business. We don’t own landfills, or any mill assets. We are solely focused on recycling.”
One way to achieving that goal for Greenstar is through its single-stream recycling capabilities, said Delnick.
“Greenstar’s single-stream recycling capabilities are among the most technologically advanced and highly automated in the country,” he said. “When we’ve introduced single-stream recycling in some of our communities, we’ve seen recycling numbers increase by as much as 300%. The communities we serve have benefited tremendously and that’s a great feeling.”
The company also is looking at becoming the top recycler in the U.S. through glass recycling. Greenstar operates a glass bead manufacturing plant where window glass is used to make the tiny glass beads that give road paint a reflective quality, Delnick said.
“Greenstar operates the newest and most modern glass recycling facilities in the U.S. in which mixed glass is color-sorted, crushed to end-user specifications.”
Looking toward the future, Delnick said his company is investing in technology to provide flexibility and service to its suppliers and higher quality and consistent supply for its end use customers.
“We have invested over $300 million in recycling in the U.S. in three years. Finally, we will continue to make recycling profitable and sustainable for our customers and work to avoid the use of landfill for disposal through innovative approaches to reclaiming materials out of solid waste,” he said.
Delnick also said Greenstar wants to continue educating the public about recycling.
“Recycling is the right choice environmentally and, in many cases, is less costly than landfill. However, according to the latest report from the EPA, nationwide the municipal recycling rate actually went down last year — excluding composting,” he said.
In order to boost the nationwide recycling rate, Greenstar is committed to making recycling sustainable.
“The commodity markets will go up and down as we have seen dramatically in the last 18 months, but we are working closely with our customers to ensure that recycling is sustainable over the long-term and remains a priority throughout all market conditions,” Delnick said. “Every piece of material that goes through one of our facilities is one less item that sits in a landfill,” he said. “And when we simplify the process, more commodities pass over our sorters.”
