Tymex Plastics turns post-production scrap into useable plastics products.
Issue Date: December 2006, Posted On: 11/27/2006; Inside Business Magazine

It isn’t often the American dream turns into reality. But for three men who started Tymex Plastics, it did. And reality is better than the dream ever could have been.

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When self-proclaimed “working-class guys” Michael Turkovich, Mark Simonitis and Eric Yarabenetz were employed at a plastics company in 2000, they didn’t like the way things were going with that company or the ownership. So, they developed a business plan of their own for a post industrial plastics-processing center.

Yarabenetz, director of sales and Simonitis, vice president of the Cuyahoga Heights-based company, began making sales calls out of their basement in January 2001. Piece by piece and sale by sale the company began to grow. From 2004 to 2005, Tymex Plastics saw an 89 percent sales growth. During that same time period, employee levels grew from 16 to 28 workers. And from 2001 to 2005, Tymex has seen a 1,456 percent sales growth and a 367 percent employee growth.

Tymex solicits manufacturers of plastic products to turn their post production scrap into various forms of reusable plastic. One of the unique aspects of Tymex is that it provides its own trailers for the companies to use to dispose of the scrap. Once full, the manufacturer calls Tymex to remove the trailer and replace it with an empty one.
“They don’t want to take up floor space with scrap,” Turkovich says. “With the spotted trailer, it’s not getting mixed up. It’s off their floor. And once the trailer is full, we pick it up. It’s a huge benefit for our customers.”

Once collected, the plastic is separated and classified. It is then ground down into flakes and turned into pellets. The pellets may then be pulverized into powder. Tymex then re-sells the value added plastic materials to a wide variety of end users. Tymex also brokers material by purchasing surplus product from companies and reselling it. Although all of the work is done in Cuyahoga Heights, Tymex reaches as far south as North Carolina, as far west as Wisconsin and as far east as New York. Tymex also exports overseas.
Although they knew Tymex would be a success, the trio didn’t realize it would happen so quickly.

“I thought it would take longer,” Turkovich says. “We started strong and then 9/11 happened, but we prevailed by talking to our vendors, suppliers and paying our bills. All of us put our personal lives on hold. It took long hours and a great deal of commitment.”

The recipe for success was simple, even if the work that went into it wasn’t.
“We each have something unique to bring to the table,” says Turkovich, president of the company. “Being a smaller company we can make decisions quickly. Executing a plan does not take an act of congress. We’re nimble and can make changes on the fly. It might not be the most logical step to take, but we don’t know that until we try.”

Services Offered

• Compounding
  Tymex Plastics utilizes state-of-the-art extrusion, blending, pelletizing, and classifying components to custom compound various polyolefin and styrenic based polymers. With our process capabilities we can toll blend and extrude powders, pellets, and regrind to our customers' specifications.
   
• Grinding
  We use various sized grinders, granulators, and shredders to downsize large parts and purgings. In-line metal detectors and magnets are used in conjunction with a negative air pressure transfer system and bag house to produce regrind that is free of metal contamination and heavy fines.
   
• Pulverizing
  To meet the requirements of the rotational molding industry, we provide pulverizing services through our multiple pulverizing systems capable of over 3,000#/hr.
   
• Brokerage
  Our ever growing presence in the marketplace is enabling us to become a large purchaser and reseller of all grades of polymers in various forms. We have the ability to set-up purchasing programs for your scrap, overages, and clean-outs. We have many programs in place that allow us to have consistent feedstocks.
   
• Transportation and Logistics
  With our own fleet of trucks and trailers Tymex Plastics has the ability to spot trailers, provide skids and gaylords upon request, and maintain quick response time for our customers and vendors.
   
• Material Testing
  Our in-house laboratory, as well as off-site testing facilities help to insure proper material specifications such as melt, durometer, izod, impact, particle size, ash, and bulk density.

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