The old saying “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure” rings true for business owner Jonathan Beekman.
“Our goal is to create value out of waste.”
Four-and-a-half years ago, Beekman started running Full Circle Plastics in Nobleford, Alta.
The company started making products for the construction industry. Now, it’s expanded into oil and gas, agriculture and residential products, just to name a few.
“We’ve gone to building over 20 products, a lot of them just because either we see there’s a value, there’s a need for them or our customers approach us and say, ‘Hey, can you build us this?'” added Beekman.
Full Circle Plastics sources plastic as close to home as possible. Beeman said a lot of it comes from areas like the County of Lethbridge, the M.D of Willow Creek, Pincher Creek, Raymond, Magrath, Fort Macleod and Cardston.
“It feels good to source product locally. Plus, it’s what we need, we need local solutions.”
Plastic collected from the City of Lethbridge has come full circle, and is now on display in some city parks and even at the Waste and Recycling Centre.
“Material that residents have generated, washed and lovingly put in their blue cart and brought to us to be sorted actually gets turned back into the community,” said Steve Rozee, manager at the cities Waste & Recycling Centre.
“Some of the posts in city parks, as well as the curb stops at the recycling centre, were all made by Full Circle Plastics.”
Beekman said purchasing one of the planter boxes the company makes nearly balances out what one Canadian produces in plastic waste on average per year.
“Your per-capita annual plastic waste will be approximately 80 kilograms,” he said.
“We built a garden box and that was a new product this year, our garden box weighs about 75 kilograms.”
Rozee added having a company so close to home that can utilize recycled material collected locally has been a huge plus to the recycling industry.
“It’s actually a point of pride within recycling in Alberta that we have a manufacturer here that’s from the grassroots up, and built this business.”