Cascade Engineering expands line of recycled plastic products with Florida company

Finding new channels to sell existing products is just one goal of a new partnership between Cascade Engineering and Boca Raton, Florida-based NextLife, a leading sustainability innovator.

The two companies plan to develop and commercialize a number of sustainable plastic products using NextLife’s post-consumer resin made from recycled clothes hangers, plastic bags and stretch wrap.

The first product is a rebranding of Cascade Engineering’s EcoCart, launched about five years ago and sold wholesale to the solid waste hauling industry. The two-wheeled residential trash and recycling container has been redesigned for the consumer retail market with 36-, 72- and 96-gallon sizes in three colors, all made with 30 to 50 percent (depending on the color) NextLife-certified recycled resin. Cascade Engineering sustainably manufactures the carts following NextLife’s strict guidelines for “green” products based on the product’s life-cycle assessment.

“We’re looking at products we and our suppliers are already making, so NextLife can put its certification on them and put them on the retail market,” says Mike Lewis, Cascade’s director of business development. “The push is closed loop products: NextLife takes back, for instance, post-consumer plastics bought at Wal-Mart, sells the resin to Cascade, and we’ll make it into products we’ll see at Wal-Mart. We’re looking hard at a rain barrel as our next product. That’s very close to a done deal.”

NextLife works with other companies in the supply chain to obtain sustainable packaging and labeling for the products.

“Both companies are very passionate about sustainability,” Lewis says. “We’re strong in design, engineering and manufacturing and they’re strong in retail and marketing. This is a good opportunity for Cascade to enter the retail market.”

Source: Mike Lewis, Cascade Engineering; Amanda Passage, Lambert, Edwards & Associates

Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at deborah@rapidgrowthmedia.com.