Dolco has four plants in North America, where it manufactures various polystyrene food containers and packaging materials, such as egg cartons, apple trays and berry baskets. Dolco's Wenatchee plant uses more than 1 million pounds of recycled polystyrene a year - enough to fill about five rail cars, said plant manager Rich Peters. If all goes well, Northwest Specialties will be able to supply the Wenatchee factory all the recycled plastic it can use. So far, NSR accepts 80,000 pounds of polystyrene a month from food service outfits as far away as Alaska and from nearby school districts. Its goal is to produce 10,000 pounds of pellets this first month of production and steadily accelerate until it reaches 80,000 a month by the end of the year.
Polystyrenes are one of seven categories of plastics.
The versatile material is used to make everything from those foam peanuts used in shipping to the hard plastic shells on home computers. Everyone involved in the NSR endeavor has been working anywhere from 10 to 16 hours a day for the last six months, including family members who operate the various stations in the homemade industrial setup. Now, the company is ready to start in with an intensive marketing program and send test samples of its product to other manufacturers throughout the Northwest. The partners in the enterprise come from diverse backgrounds, ranging from farming, mechanics, millwork, manufacturing, construction and warehousing. We want to build a name for the business, not garner accolades for individual names.