Frank Lewis

PDT Staff Writer

Wastren Advantage Inc. (WAI) announced Tuesday it will expand a production at a facility in Waverly near its Piketon headquarters. The expansion would significantly expand production and logistical capacity for their customers in the automotive, consumer products, packaging and other industries. The move will create 50 jobs by adding at least two more production lines to the process.

The facility will be operated by Hadsell Chemical Processing.

WAI also announced its acquisition of Geo-Tech Polymers LLC., a Westerville, Ohio, based plastics recycling firm holding an exclusive patented process that dramatically increases the value and range of uses for plastic products from post-industrial and post-consumer waste streams, notably automotive plastics that typically remain in landfills.

The newly named president of Geo-Tech Polymers, of which Hadsell Chemical of Waverly is a minority partner, is Doug Collins, a graduate of Portsmouth West High School. Collins has also worked for Steve Moore, a Northwest High School graduate with a degree in plastics engineering from Shawnee State University, who went on to study chemistry at The Ohio State University, then getting his law degree from Capital University.

“Geo-Tech is a process that involves mechanical and some chemical processing,” Hadsell Chemical majority owner Bob Walton Jr. said. “So it fits really well with what we do already, and I think it’s a brilliant purchase by Wastren, and because this business (Geo-Tech) was just stuck in neutral in Westerville, and now, with the expansion of several lines, it will be able to do the volume that it needs to do for larger customers.”

“We see tremendous opportunity in the Geo-Tech process, especially as part of the automotive supply chain. We can reduce cost and weight in cars and trucks while meeting all government and OEM standards. With this acquisition, move and expansion we can meet that opportunity,” Collins said. “We welcome Geo-Tech and its professionals to the WAI team and look forward to expanding our operations and creating much needed jobs here in Southern Ohio.”

Walton said the process will take up about 40,000 square feet of the 122,000-square-foot Hadsell facilities. Those facilities consist of 31 acres with a Norfolk/Southern rail spur, for a total of 139,000 square feet. Walton said he has 15 employees, expanding to 25 by late fall and to 35 to 40 next year.

“These are good jobs,” Walton said. “The average starting rate is $14 an hour with benefits, including an 80/20 health plan, prescription coverage, accrued vacation and sick leave, and paid holidays. There are people who will make more than that. It’s a wage and benefits you can make a living on.”

Walton said large companies such as Dow Chemicals come to Hadsell Chemicals to process 2 million or 3 million pounds of a chemical compound for them, rather than have to expand their own facilities for a few million pounds. The big work the company does for small companies includes a contract they have with a small company out of New Albany, Ohio, that Hadsell Chemical is doing manufacturing for, since that company doesn’t have its own manufacturing facilities. Walton said Hadsell deals mainly in dry chemicals and blending and milling of materials.

Frank Lewis may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 232, or at flewis@heartlandpublications.com.