Dive Brief:
- Pro Disposal, a Pennsylvania-based hauler and MRF operator, received a multimillion-dollar loan from Closed Loop Partners’ Catalytic Capital & Private Credit group for improvements at its Ebensburg MRF.
- Pro Disposal recently opened its 40,000-square-foot, 20-ton-per-hour MRF. New equipment funded by the loan included four new optical sorters. The upgrades help manage growing demand for recycling services in the region and produce better-quality bales, including for PET, said Pro Disposal CEO Michael Bellvia in a statement.
- Closed Loop Partners says it deployed the loan at a “critical time in the recycling operator’s growth,” since the company was previously using a five-ton-per-hour system that relied on hand-sorting operations.
Dive Insight:
The investment is the latest in Closed Loop’s infrastructure fund strategy, which offers loans for private companies and municipalities looking to boost recycling access or capacity.
Closed Loop did not disclose the loan amount, but it said its investment with Pro Disposal underscores how recyclers are responding to shifts in international recycling supply chains and growing demand for domestic supplies of recycled materials like rPET.
“Strong domestic recycling infrastructure bolsters durable domestic supply chains,” said Ray Hugel, Closed Loop’s managing director and co-head of the catalytic capital and private credit group, in a statement.
Pro Disposal’s new MRF consolidates operations from several of its former locations. In 2024, the company negotiated with the Central Cambria School Board on a property tax deal as a job creation incentive.
The company started as a hauling operation in 2002 and launched recycling operations in 2010. Its recycling offerings started with “a small municipal contract and manually sorted curbside collection,” but later invested in more automated equipment, it said in a statement. Pro Disposal says it operates more than 125 vehicles across nine counties in Pennsylvania. In 2023, it also expanded its operations into Maryland and West Virginia. The company now serves over 100,000 customers and employs 152 people.
Pro Disposal has also invested in automated and upgraded trucks in recent years. In 2022, it added several automated trucks for its curbside residential collections and says nearly 55% of its residential and 90% of its commercial collection is now automated.
In 2024, Pennsylvania’s Driving PA Forward program, a state emissions reduction program, awarded the company a $6.19 million grant to purchase 16 electric waste and recycling trucks. The grant also helped Pro Disposal install charging plugs at the new Ebensburg facility. In 2022, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection offered the company $300,000 in funding for three electric trash trucks as part of a similar grant.
Other recent Closed Loop investments from its Catalytic Capital & Private Credit group include a loan to Superior Fine Grind, another Pennsylvania-based recycler that used the funding to upgrade its Connellsville MRF.
