It’s a familiar, yet still astonishing story: MB&A (Michael Biddle & Assoc., now MBA Polymers) began in founder Dr. Mike Biddle’s garage in 1992, with his determination to prove that it was possible to recycle plastics from complex waste streams. Promising results soon moved the venture to a large scale pilot facility in Berkeley, California, and in 1997 to a small-scale production facility in Richmond, California, where plastics from a wide variety of commingled waste streams from all over the world were successfully recycled. Experience, technology, and capabilities grew right along with life-changing ideas.
Fast-forward through a few years of tireless determination and well-placed investments, and MBA Polymers has become the world leader in recycling plastics from end-of-life durable goods such as computers, electronics, appliances, and autos. The firm’s headquarters and research facility remains in Richmond, California, but production facilities have expanded internationally, mining plastics from some of the largest, plastics-rich waste streams in the world. Our state-of-the-art plants in Guangzhou, China and Kematen an der Ybbs, Austria have been operating since 2006, focusing on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). And in the final months of 2010, we expanded to Worksop, UK, where our joint venture with the largest metal recycler in the British Isles and one of the largest in the world (EMR) produces post-consumer plastics from automotive shredder residue vs. recycling from ELV, appliances and electronics. RED
Our facilities represent the four most advanced plastics recycling facilities on the planet today—they’re the first four of our many additional plants to come.
Closing the Loop in High Value Plastics
Our proprietary processes require less than 20% of the energy needed to produce virgin from petrochemicals, saving enormous amounts of greenhouse gases. Major global manufacturers then use our plastics to create more sustainable products for their customers, while committing to a more responsible supply chain. This “closed loop” supply cycle is taking our world in a direction that can sustain manufacturing and consumption while also protecting our limited natural resources.
Of the approximately 250 billion kgs (550 billion pounds) of plastic used annually on a global basis, less than 10% of these plastics from complex waste streams such as durable goods are currently recycled. In comparison, over 90% of the metals, such as steel, copper and aluminum, are recycled from these same complex waste streams. Why then are plastics—far more valuable than steel on a cost per weight basis—so undervalued as recovered materials? MBA Polymers is changing the way the world sees recycled plastic, creating a highly valuable commodity while it provides a significant economic benefit—all in a sustainable way.
Recognized Results
Our work has been honored with multiple awards, including the Tech Museum Intel Tech Laureate Award (2006), the Thomas Alva Edison Award for Innovation (2002), and the World Economic Tech Pioneer Award (2006). We were named a Global 100 CleanTech company two years in a row (2009 and 2010), and have been honored through DOE’s NICE3 Program and California's Cal-Tip program. We've also won a prestigious DOC NIST ATP grant, the Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in 1998, and were named one of America's Most Innovative Companies by Inc. Magazine's Innovation Series, and receiving the Economist's Innovation Award in 2010.
Our most recent awards and recognitions include the Gothenburg Award for Sustainable Development and the GoingGreen 'Company of the year 2012' - Additionally, SHFT.com released an exciting 3 minute documentary video on MBA Polymers as one of the 10 innovators leading important change around the world.
More Sustainable in Every Sense
Our numerous proprietary processes first separate polymeric materials from highly complex waste products, then further clean, sort and purify the resulting plastics by type and grade until they're ready for re-use in demanding applications—replacing virgin plastics and closing the loop. The customers who buy our purified, post-consumer recycled plastics (PCR) include many of the same companies that produce the products we eventually reclaim.
MBA Polymers recovers the most prevalent and valuable materials from its feedstreams, often in multiple grades and colors:
ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene)
HIPS (high impact polystyrene)
PP (polypropylene)
HDPE (high density polyethylene)
Filled PP
Mixed by-product plastics
Rubber
Residual metals
Our facilities in California, China, Austria and the UK can process over 300 million pounds (over 140,000 tons) of waste per year, selling the purified plastics back to some of the largest manufacturers in the world of IT, electronics, appliances, automobiles, office, home and garden products.
MBA Polymers gives clients certainty that their plastics are handled in compliance with Western standards and legislation.
We process waste streams containing plastic at many levels of purity, including plastics-rich streams from different types of electronics such as small home appliances, refrigerators, IT products (computers, printers), consumer electronics, and from other durable products such as automobiles, toys, etc.
These mixed plastics may contain metals, rubber, wood, printed circuit boards, labels, fabrics, etc.
The First Steps Towards Developing a Lasting Sourcing Relationship
1. Send a description and photos of the materials available (correspondence).
2. Based upon the description, we typically request representative samples for material analysis and valuation.
3. Based on the valuation we might progress through trials to a regular sourcing relationship.
Member