By Jim Johnson
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
Published: April 9, 2014 4:55 pm ET
Updated: April 9, 2014 4:58 pm ET
Petoskey Plastics Inc. expects to eventually create 26 new jobs through an expansion of the company’s recycling and manufacturing capacity in Hartford City, Ind.
The Michigan-based company will use a 10-year, $6.2 million city tax abatement to help with the project that will enhance recycling operations and provide increased manufacturing capacity for polyethylene products with recycled content.
Petoskey also will refurbish a rail spur serving the site, work the company said would improve movement of raw materials into the plant.
Petoskey entered the blown plastic film and bag business in 1970 and added recycled content eight years later.
The company serves a variety of industries, including automotive, grocery, medical, recycling, food, retail, packaging and construction.
More than one half of the products the company makes include at least 50-percent post-consumer content. Recycled content can reach 70 percent. Petoskey recycled than 26 million pounds of film and bags at the Hartford City site last year, which covers about 300,000 square feet.
Used plastics are ground into flakes and washed before being extruded into pellets. That recycled resin is then used to help make new products, including garbage bags, can liners and seat covers. The recycled resin is sandwiched between two layers of virgin material.
“While most businesses and the general economy are growing at a modest pace, Petoskey’s Hartford City plant has exploded over the last two years,” ,” Hartford City Mayor Ben Hodgin said in a statement. “This is great for Petoskey Plastics and it is great for Hartford City and Blackford County.”
The company gets its name from Petoskey, Mich., where its headquarters and original manufacturing site are located. The firm also has a manufacturing site in Morristown, Tenn., and a sales office in Birmingham, Mich.
News of this latest growth follows the company’s $9.7 million expansion at the Hartford City site that added 80 jobs last year. That work included the addition of six blown film towers and four blown film lines.
“As consumers and businesses focus more on recycling and green products, we are gearing up to meet the growing demand,” Petoskey CEO Paul Keiswetter said in a statement.
Petoskey opened in Hartford City in 2007 and started recycling there the following year. | 
