AERT To Triple Springdale Operations

Advanced Environmental Recycling Technologies Inc., which makes building components from recycled plastic and sawdust, will expand its Springdale operations threefold with a multimillion-dollar bond issue endorsed Oct. 27 by the Springdale City Council.

Joe Brooks, AERT’s president, says the money will be used to purchase the building and 10-acre site from which the company now operates in Springdale. In addition, the company will buy another 10 acres on which it plans to build a plant capable of recycling up to 30 million pounds of plastic annually. That operation will be in addition to the recycling operation already in place in Springdale with an annual capacity of 15 million pounds.

Also, AERT plans to install additional extrusion lines at Springdale and expand its manufacturing operations. The company currently makes door and window components at Springdale, but the expansion means some decking and industrial flooring also will be made in Arkansas, Brooks says.

AERT’s ChoiceDek product, marketed by Weyerhaeuser Co., is made in Junction City, Texas. This year the company has been test-marketing a new decking product, one that has a wood-grain look and will be made in Springdale, Brooks says. No name has been chosen for that product, but it also will be sold through Weyerhauser, he says.

The City Council’s endorsement incurs no liability on the city’s part but makes the bonds eligible for tax-exempt status under the Arkansas waste minimalization program. AERT may issue up to $15 million in bonds, although Brooks says company officials are looking at issuing about $13 million worth. Alden Capital Markets of Denver is the underwriter.

Brooks says AERT has about 75 employees in Springdale, but that should grow to 250 when the construction is complete, probably in early 2000. He anticipates construction work financed by the bond money to begin during the second quarter of 1999.