Merlin Plastics

Merlin Plastics Supply Inc. was established in 1987 as a processor and marketer of industrial plastics scrap. The original operation employed two people and operated out of a 2,000 square foot plant with minimal equipment.

In 1991, Merlin Plastics entered into an agreement with Dow Chemical and the BC Ministry of the Environment. Under the “Partners in Recycling Program”, Merlin put in a plant to process post consumer HDPE milk bottles.

Financing was obtained from the provincial government under the aforementioned program, as well as other sources.

Dow at this time were the supplier of the virgin HDPE resin to the BC milk bottle market, so they agreed to take stewardship of the reprocessed resin that met the agreed to quality. During this time, Merlin rented an additional 10,800 square feet, doubling the size of the plant to 21,600 square feet. Merlin also acquired Washers, Dryers, a Granulator, Extruder, and additional equipment to construct a complete and integrated post consumer plastics processing line, that converts bales of milk bottles into cleaned, blended resin that is stored in a silo system then loaded into boxes, bulk rail cars or bulk trucks.

Merlin also purchased a substantial amount of equipment to expand the industrial plastic processing line, and currently purchases and processes a very considerable volume of plastics.

In 1992, once again under the “Partners in Recycling” program, Merlin established processing capability to handle industrial HDPE pails, of the type used in the food industry. This project was in partnership with Esso Chemicals, the major supplier of pail grade resin in BC.

In 1994 – 1995, Merlin leased an additional 22,000 square feet of plant to enter into the reprocessing of film and PET containers. This brought the total plant space to 60,000 square feet (including some outside storage). Extensive capital investment was undertaken with an entire PET processing line purchased that included state of the art colour sorting equipment.

During the five years from 1996 – 2000, extensive research and market development was undertaken to develop the PET market in Western Canada. In 2000, Merlin Plastics Alberta Inc. was founded and an 80,000 square foot PET processing plant was established in Calgary, Alberta to focus on processing PET containers from western Canada. During this time, the original Delta plant was reconfigured to focus primarily on HDPE and post-industrial plastic.