Teknor Apex sees opportunity in biodegradable plastics

AT ITS PEAK: Teknor Apex President William J. Murray says that the company's acquisition of Sarlink has given it a complete suite of thermoplastic materials that serve all major markets. / COURTESY TEKNOR APEX
AT ITS PEAK: Teknor Apex President William J. Murray says that the company's acquisition of Sarlink has given it a complete suite of thermoplastic materials that serve all major markets. / COURTESY TEKNOR APEX

Dustin Hoffman’s character in “The Graduate” may not have dedicated his life to plastics, but it worked out well for William Murray, the Lincoln native named president of Teknor Apex Co. last month. If the world is going to continue to rely on plastics in the future, the Pawtucket polymer technology company and leading U.S. maker of garden hoses is working on the compounds of the future.
Specifically, Teknor Apex is working on bio-plastics, which don’t require petroleum, including biodegradable plastics, which break down instead of piling up in landfills or the ocean.
The company has 12 facilities on three continents and its Rhode Island facility employs 400 people in research, finance and manufacturing.

ng>PBN: In 2010, with the economy still slow, Teknor bought a Dutch company called Sarlink. How has that worked out and what is new at Teknor since then?
MURRAY: Sarlink was our last big investment and they have absolutely complemented the products of Teknor Apex, giving us a complete suite of thermoplastic materials that serve all major markets. We have continued to globalize, but our base is here in Rhode Island. Our owners are from Rhode Island, I am from Rhode Island and we are here with our R&D, finance, IT, some of which are higher-level jobs right here in Rhode Island. Some of the recent developments that we have gotten into are sustainable materials. We have invested in bio-plastics, where we are making objects out of both biodegradable and bio-sustainable materials.
ng>PBN: How far away are both sustainable and biodegradable plastics from being commercially viable?
MURRAY: That technology is continuing to evolve at this point. The way we got into it was by making a deal with a company called Cerestech out of Canada [in 2008] and that got us into using thermoplastic starches in plastics. Since then we have continued to expand that technology into many other kinds of bio-plastics. … As we look out 10 to 20 years in the marketplace, I think it can have a pretty substantial position in consumer-related materials, especially disposable things like plates and cups and knives. ng>PBN: How about packaging, something there is a lot of environmental focus on?
MURRAY: It can be used in packaging. Right now there are certain constraints around that. But that would fit. Any kind of disposable material versus more durable goods, where I think there is a much-longer horizon. We are also looking at some of our base materials like PVC, which is not biodegradable or sustainable and adding a component that make a percentage of it sustainable.

ng>PBN: Do bio-sustainable and biodegradable overlap or is it one or the other?
MURRAY: They are separate and we also are working on some things that are compostable. The things that are hybrids are being sold today. The biodegradable is being sold today but it is a very small part of the marketplace. The compostable isn’t very prominent, because there aren’t the facilities in the United States. That’s more a European phenomena. For most of these things we are looking at years, not decades. Economics is the big stumbling block. Most of these materials cost more, an economic barrier you have to break through.

ng>PBN: Where are the real growth areas you see right now?
MURRAY: We continue to enjoy reasonable growth in the U.S. … But obviously our growth opportunities are where everyone else’s are, and that is in Asia. We have a plant in Singapore and one in China. … Right now we are probably around 70 percent domestic sales and 30 percent international, including Europe and Asia.

ng>PBN: Where is most of your manufacturing?
MURRAY: Our manufacturing mirrors our sales. For the most part we make in Asia what we supply in Asia, we make in Europe what we supply to Europe, Africa and the Middle East. We make in North America what is sold in North America and South America. We are in a business where we need to be across the street from our customers to service them with our products and information in their time zone and their native language.

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ng>PBN: What are your biggest challenges right now?
MURRAY: Certainly the challenges we face are not dissimilar to what many other manufacturers deal with in the U.S. with an ever-changing regulatory environment. It certainly presentsINTERVIEW
William J. Murray
Position: President of Teknor Apex Co.
Background: A Lincoln native, Murray joined Teknor Apex two days after graduating with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Rhode Island and never left. After starting out as a project engineer in 1978, this year he was named company president.
Education: Bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from URI, 1978; master of business administration from Bryant University, 1995
First job: Dishwasher at a restaurant in Lincoln
Residence: Foster
Age: 56

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