Switchable Solutions, a startup that formed to commercialize technology developed at Queen's University in Kingston and developed by
Greencentre Canada, is working to open an innovative recycling test facility in Mississauga.
President and CEO Mark Badger says the plant will begin operating in late 2012, and could employ about five employees when it opens. "The nature of these things is to start small and scale up," he says. "So we'll grow from there."
The company will use the plant to demonstrate its plastic waste recycling process, which can recycle expanded polystyrene plastic waste, including packaging foam and coffee cups. In tests,
the company claims, their process produces materials "displaying similar characteristics to virgin polystyrene." Formed last year, the company is headed by Badger, a former head of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. In addition to the recycling process, they are testing a process to process bitumen from oilsands while creating fewer toxic byproducts.
Switchable Solutions
completed an equity offering last November that generated $3.23 million, and Badger says that
recently announced federal development funding of $5.48 million to Switchable Solutions and GreenCentre Canada will help the demonstration plant's progress. "Some of that funding is destined for the plastics recycling facility," Badger says.
Writer: Edward Keenan
Source: Mark Badger, President and CEO, Switchable Solutions