Dive Brief:
- Superior Fine Grind, a Pennsylvania-based MRF operator, has received a multi-million-dollar catalytic loan from Closed Loop Partners’ Catalytic Capital & Private Credit group. SFG used the loan for new equipment and upgrades at its Connellsville MRF, which are already complete.
- SFG says the improvements will help meet increased demand for recycling services and sort higher volumes of post-consumer and post-industrial materials at its facility. It processes both residential curbside and drop-off recyclables from several communities in southern Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia.
- Closed Loop says the loan also helps boost recycling infrastructure in a mainly rural region of the country. Supporting projects that promote “equitable access to recycling for more communities” is part of Closed Loop’s infrastructure funding priorities, said Ray Hugel, director of the firm’s catalytic private investment arm.
Dive Insight:
The investment is the latest in Closed Loop’s infrastructure fund strategy, which is meant for both private companies and municipalities that want to increase recycling access or capacity.
Closed Loop’s other recent MRF investments include a $10 million loan to Canadian chemical recycling company GreenMantra Technologies, announced in September. In 2024, Closed Loop offered a $10 million loan to Eureka Recycling to complete a major MRF upgrade. The infrastructure fund also contributed to a range of municipal recycling infrastructure projects in Virginia, Iowa and Missouri in 2023.
SFG did not specify its recent loan amount, but founder Shawn Pilla said in a news release that the funding infusion helps with “supporting job development and expanding capacity to process the growing volumes of recycled materials at our facility.” The company first opened in 2011.
Hugel said the independent recycling company has “maintained a strong reputation” as it has grown in the region. Pilla is also the owner of a regional glass recycler, Cap Glass, which Closed Loop says is among the largest in the country.
The catalytic loan structure was a fit for SFG, Hugel said, because it helps ”support vertically integrated companies which can create greater efficiencies in our recycling system.”
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