What Evergreen does

Evergreen Recycling, LLC is a U.S.-based plastics recycler and one of North America's three largest producers of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) resin. Founded in 1998 in Clyde, Ohio and owned by The Sterling Group (which invested $200 million), the company operates four manufacturing facilities — Clyde OH (headquarters and largest plant at 292,000 sq. ft.), Albany NY, Amherst Nova Scotia, and Riverside CA — collectively recycling approximately 4.4 billion post-consumer PET bottles annually with food-grade rPET capacity of 217 million pounds.

The company's core technology stack combines mechanical separation (advanced steam tunnel systems for label removal, optical sorting, density separation) with AI-enabled robotic sorting from AMP Robotics Corp. for high-speed contaminant detection, and Solid-State Polymerization (SSP) technology to achieve the intrinsic viscosity (IV) specifications required by CPG customers and FDA food-contact standards. Evergreen holds APR PCR-101 certification (minimum 90% post-consumer recyclables with full traceability) and FDA Non-Objection Letters covering all food-contact condition categories. Its product portfolio comprises seven rPET pellet grades — Clear Pellet, Green Pellet, Diamond (High IV), Pearl (Mid IV), Topaz (Hot Fill), Aquamarine (Ocean Bound Plastics), Garnet (Alcohol Content), and Emerald — plus a secondary stream of by-products including PET flake, PP/PE caps and rings, mixed color plastics, aluminum cans, OCC cardboard, mixed film, and pallets.

Evergreen operates a sales-led B2B go-to-market, selling directly to enterprise beverage and consumer goods customers under quote-based multi-year contracts. Named enterprise customers include Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Nestlé, with Evergreen positioned as the 'preferred supplier' to these top global brands and as a partner in the American Beverage Association's Every Bottle Back initiative. Revenue is generated primarily through rPET resin sales (food-grade and non-food grade pellet products) with secondary revenue from by-product sales. The company sources post-consumer feedstock from Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) and state bottle-deposit programs, including California's CRV program via its Riverside facility. The business is capital-intensive, vertically integrated from bottle collection through pellet production, and organized around closing the PET plastic loop for major CPG brand sustainability commitments.

Name

Evergreen

Legal name

Evergreen Recycling, LLC

Website

https://evergreentogether.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1998

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Evergreen Recycling is a North American PET plastics recycler and one of the three largest producers of food-grade rPET resin, operating four facilities that process 4.4 billion post-consumer bottles annually into FDA-approved rPET pellets sold to enterprise beverage and consumer goods customers including Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Nestlé.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Plastic Recycling and rPET Resin Manufacturing

NAICS

Plastics Material and Resin Manufacturing (325211), Plastics and Rubber Products Manufacturing (326)

SIC

Plastic Materials, Synth Resins & Nonvulcan Elastomers (2821)

akta.pro primary industry

Recycled & Reprocessed Polymer Resin Manufacturing (rPET, rPP, rPE; PCR/PIR resins) (IMANAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Reprocessed Resin & Recycled Polymer Compounding (PCR/PIR Compounds) (IMANAMAG), Recycled-Content Plastic Packaging (rPET, rHDPE, rPP) (IMALAMAC), Food-Grade & rPET/rHDPE Recycling (Decontamination/SSP, Bottle-to-Bottle) (EUAIAKAD), Post-Consumer Plastic Collection & Sorting (MRF/PRF, Bale Supply) (EUAIAKAA)

Keywords

• PET bottle recycling
• Food-grade rPET resin
• Recycled polyester resin
• Post-consumer plastics recycling
• Sustainable packaging materials

Headquarters

HQ city

Clyde

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices4 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Operations, Supply Chain, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. rPET Resin Sales: Primary revenue stream from manufacturing and selling recycled PET (rPET) resin in pellet form. Products include food-grade and non-food grade rPET sold to beverage, food, health & beauty, and household products companies. Pellet products available with Non-Objection Letter (NOL) for direct food contact applications. Available in various grades: Diamond (High IV), Pearl (Mid IV), Topaz (Hot Fill), Aquamarine (Ocean Bound Plastics), Garnet (Alcohol Content), Emerald (Green Pellet), and Clear Pellet.
2. By-Product Sales: Secondary revenue from selling post-consumer recyclable by-products including PET Purge, PP/PE Caps & Rings, Mixed Color Plastic Bales, PET Flake Reject, PET Fines, Mixed Color Paper Elutriator Flake, Aluminum Cans, PP Supersacks, Mixed Film Bales, OCC Reusable Gaylords, OCC Bales, Totes, Mixed Metal, and Wooden Pallets.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Evergreen is one of North America's three largest plastic recyclers, collecting post-consumer PET bottles and converting them into food-grade recycled PET (rPET) resin pellets. The company operates four manufacturing facilities across North America with an annual capacity of 4.4 billion PET bottles and 125 million pounds of food-grade rPET, producing multiple FDA-approved resin grades for beverage, food, health and beauty, and household packaging applications. Secondary revenue comes from selling recyclable by-products such as PET flake, PP/PE caps, mixed plastics, aluminum, and cardboard.

Product overview

Evergreen is a plastics recycling company and one of North America's three largest producers of food-grade recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET). The company operates a circular economy model, collecting post-consumer PET bottles and converting them into high-quality rPET resin. The core product portfolio centers on rPET pellets in multiple variants: Clear Pellet and Green Pellet as standard food-grade products, plus six FDA-approved grades (Aquamarine, Topaz, Diamond, Pearl, Emerald, Garnet) designed for specific applications including hot fill, cold fill, carbonated beverages, alcohol packaging, and ocean-bound plastics recovery. The company also sells by-products including PET flake (reject, fines), PP/PE caps and rings, mixed color plastics, aluminum cans, mixed film, OCC cardboard, metal, and wooden pallets. All food-grade rPET is produced to customer specifications with Non-Objection Letter (NOL) and APR PCR-101 certification. Evergreen's four manufacturing plants across North America (Clyde, OH; Albany, NY; Amherst, NS; Riverside, CA) feature AI-enabled robotic sorting capabilities, with an annual recycling capacity of 4.4 billion PET bottles and food-grade rPET capacity of 125 million pounds.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Evergreen rPET: Product line of recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET) resin in pellet form, including clear pellet, green pellet, and FDA-approved variants (Aquamarine, Topaz, Diamond, Pearl, Emerald, Garnet) for various food-contact applications.
• Evergreen rPET Resin
• Evergreen Recycling

Products and services

• rPET Clear Pellet

Quantifiable outcome

• 79% less energy required to produce rPET compared to virgin PET resin
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability2 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• wTe Corp. (UltrePET and Novapet acquisitions)coreOthers · 1 November 2021Evergreen acquired two facilities from wTe Corp. in November 2021: Evergreen Albany (formerly UltrePET) in Albany, New York and Evergreen Amherst (formerly Novapet) in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. These acquisitions were part of the strategic expansion from single location to four facilities.
• CarbonLite (Riverside facility acquisition)coreOthers · 1 May 2021Evergreen acquired the Riverside, California facility from CarbonLite in May 2021. The facility is strategically located in California which has bottle deposit laws (California Redemption Value/CRV), providing access to high-quality post-consumer PET from state recycling programs.
• AMP Robotics Corp.coreTechnology or IntegrationAI robotics company that installed AI-enabled robotic sorting lines at Evergreen's Albany (2022), Clyde (April 2021), and Riverside (August 2021) facilities. These high-speed, robotic sort capability lines identify and pick contaminants from PET bottle streams, enabling high-quality clear and green PET for food-grade rPET pellet production.
• American Beverage Association / Every Bottle Back InitiativecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnership with America's leading beverage companies (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Keurig Dr Pepper) to ensure 100% recyclable bottles are collected and remade into new bottles. Every Bottle Back has committed $14.3 million in recycling grants to 22 communities including Evergreen's Clyde facility, projected to generate 698 million more pounds of PET over ten years. American Beverage VP of Sustainability stated that public-private partnerships like these are essential in driving solutions to close the loop on bottles.
• Association of Plastic Recyclers (APR)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndustry trade organization for plastic recyclers. Evergreen is a proud member and has achieved APR PCR-101 Certification for its food-grade rPET production facilities, ensuring minimum 90% Post Consumer Recyclables with full traceability.
• NAPCORminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNational Association for PET Container Resources. Evergreen is a proud member of this industry organization focused on PET container recycling.
• Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs)coreOthersPartnerships with municipal curbside recycling programs through Material Recovery Facilities. These facilities sort recyclables and bring PET bottles and containers to Evergreen in giant bales for processing. Evergreen also works with other aggregators including state-sponsored recycling programs (10 states have bottle deposit laws) and plastic packaging companies.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Amcor: Global packaging giant that operates its own rPET bottle-to-bottle recycling capabilities to supply its consumer packaging customers. As a major rPET buyer/vertically integrated producer, it represents both a customer and competitor to Evergreen.
• Indorama Ventures: One of the world's largest PET and rPET producers with global manufacturing scale. While much larger and more diversified across virgin PET, it directly competes with Evergreen in food-grade rPET and bottle-to-bottle recycling, particularly for CPG customers in North America.
• ALPLA Group: One of the largest global plastic packaging manufacturers with growing rPET integration across its bottle and preform operations. Competes with Evergreen both as a buyer of rPET and increasingly as an in-house recycler in North America.

Direct peers

• Clear Path Recycling: A leading North American food-grade rPET joint venture (formerly a P&G/Republic Services consortium) producing recycled PET resin for CPG customers. Directly competes with Evergreen for high-volume beverage and personal care brand supply contracts.
• UltrePET: Historical rPET competitor whose Albany, New York plant was acquired by Evergreen in November 2021. Provides a direct historical reference point for the Albany site's competitive positioning and customer contracts.
• Phoenix Technologies International: A specialized food-grade and bottle-grade rPET producer operating in North America. Competes directly with Evergreen for FDA NOL-certified recycled resin supply to beverage and consumer goods manufacturers.
• Verde Recycling: Emerging North American rPET producer focused on food-grade bottle-to-bottle recycling. Represents a newer competitor chasing the same regulatory tailwinds and customer mandates that Evergreen serves.
• CarbonLite Recycle: Former direct rPET competitor whose Riverside, California plant was acquired by Evergreen in May 2021. Operates food-grade rPET pellet production with comparable technology and customer overlap, making it the closest historical benchmark for Evergreen's product portfolio.
• DENTIS Group (Indorama Polymers): A specialized PET recycler operating in North America focused on post-consumer and post-industrial rPET. Competes with Evergreen in food-grade and non-food rPET markets for similar downstream converters and brand owners.
• Novapet: Historical rPET competitor (Canadian operations) whose Amherst, Nova Scotia facility was acquired by Evergreen from wTe Corp in November 2021. Directly comparable in technology, customer base, and food-grade rPET focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/evergreentogether
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/evergreen-together

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Evergreen