Plastics Recycling Firm Plans Expansion
Crusader Plastics Recycling Inc., a small Santa Paula firm that converts used plastic bags and other plastic waste material into large industrial reels, is expected to finance future expansion with the help of a $500,000 state loan.
The low-interest loan has already been approved by a subcommittee of the state Integrated Waste Management Board and probably will be granted by the full board in early June, according to Victoria Hand, recycling division manager of Ventura County’s Solid Waste Management Department.
Val Picton, Crusader’s president, said the company’s reels, measuring up to 10 feet in diameter, are already being used by such utilities as Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric. The reels are used mainly to hold electric and fiber-optic cable.
“Plastic reels can be used over and over again for years, whereas the wooden ones are usually discarded after a single use,” he said.
He said his firm was chosen to receive the 5%-interest state loan because “we’re making use of material that would otherwise be piling up in landfills, and we’re saving thousands upon thousands of trees that would be destroyed to make wooden reels.”
Picton wouldn’t disclose Crusader’s revenues, but said he has 11 employees now and expects to have more than 100 on the payroll within two years. He added that Crusader is forming a subsidiary in Canada to make reels in that country.
