Alpha Plastics Inc. of St. Louis in Gratiot County is the first custom plastic extruder business to have a pollution prevention project approved under the Department of Environmental Quality’s new Small Business Pollution Prevention Loan Program.

The program is part of the Clean Michigan Initiative, a $675 million environmental bond proposed by Gov. John Engler and overwhelmingly approved by voters in 1998. The program provides low-interest loans to small businesses with fewer than 100 employees to encourage the implementation of projects that eliminate or reduce waste through source reduction or recycling.

DEQ Director Russell Harding’s approval of the project clears the way for finalizing a $100,000 loan to Alpha Plastics. The business will buy a closed-loop water recycling/re-circulating system that enables it to reduce annual water usage by over 20 million gallons, cut annual disposal of defective plastic product by nearly 85,000 pounds, and eliminate the potential discharges of oil and plastic particulate to the nearby Pine River basin.

"We’re pleased to have a plastics company participating in this program," Harding said. "This is a worthwhile project in terms of its significant water conservation achievement and its solid waste reduction. I commend Alpha Plastics for its leadership in becoming one of the program’s early participants."

Under the program, the DEQ works in partnership with the company and its local bank to provide a loan that does not exceed the 5-percent interest rate established in the state statute creating this program. In this instance, Commercial Bank of Ithaca is participating in the loan with the DEQ. Upon completing the loan documents, the bank will issue the $100,000 low-interest loan.

"I encourage other businesses to take advantage of this opportunity to save money and conserve resources," said Jim Gower, Alpha Plastics general manager. "The DEQ was helpful and genuinely interested in making the project a success."

Eligible projects must reduce waste at the point of generation, or reuse or recycle materials. The program is based on a match partnership where the loan is split between participating lending institutions and the DEQ CMI fund.

Loans up to $100,000 are available to all private business sectors including manufacturing, farming, retail and service. The program is administered by the DEQ’s Environmental Assistance Division.

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