CPR has big plans for its Port Bienville operation

July 31, 2014

Ben Benvenuti, owner of Commercial Plastics Recycling Inc., has worked in the plastics recycling business since 1990 and started his own company in 1996 with four guiding principles: customer satisfaction, integrity, teamwork and excellence. "We found success rather easily by doing the right thing," Benvenuti said from his headquarters in Tampa, Fla. The company has facilities in Florida, North Carolina, West Virginia and a sales office in New Jersey and opened its operation at Port Bienville Industrial Park a year ago to recycle plant scraps for industrial park tenant DAK and other customers. CPR's Port Bienville facility is its smallest but Benvenuti has big plans for the young operation. The company has a 30,000­square­foot warehouse and owns a total of 33 acres. "Our hopes are to expand that operation with additional facilities and maybe even create a little industrial park within the port for other businesses to piggyback off some of the other opportunities at the location," Benvenuti said. Denver Rose is the Port Bienville plant manager. He's been with the company for about eight years and lives in the Clermont Harbor community. "Currently we have seven employees, running in two shifts," he said. Benvenuti added, "That could easily double in size in the next year or two." CPR's employees handle approximately 6 million pounds of plant scrap a year, including 2 million to 3 million for DAK alone. Rose said it's mostly PET, or polyester, that's recycled. CPR also recycles PET scrap delivered by truck and rail from a company in Canada. CPR employees operate equipment that breaks up the material into small pieces and removes any contaminants so it can be used by manufacturers to make products including fiber for carpeting and other polyester based products. Benvenuti sees the potential growth at Port Bienville for services such as trucking and equipment refurbishing. "Any time you have a major chemical company like DAK or SABIC in an area, you have other services that are needed. We feel it's going to continue to grow in that location." Benvenuti said the port's infrastructure including rail, power and roads makes it attractive to CPR and other companies. "Those are the things that we look for and the things that most people are going to continue to look for when they go to expand into locations." Benvenuti said his company is looking at ways to balance increased business at Port Bienville with the limited space that's available now. "We already inquired about some expansion pricing on the building, trying to determine whether it makes more sense to expand the building or build another building," he said. "We hope to make it sooner than later."

#Port Bienville Industrial Park, #Services at Port Bienville