Federal program pumped nearly $1.2B into recycling companies

U.S. recycling companies received about $1.19 billion in Paycheck Protection Program loans, including nearly $318 million received after Congress allowed certain companies to take a second bite at the PPP apple.

Plastics Recycling Update recently updated its analysis of PPP data and its map of recycling industry recipients. In March 2020, federal leaders first approved the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provided forgivable loans to companies to help them weather the pandemic’s economic disruptions.

Then, in December 2020, Congress passed – and President Trump signed – legislation allowing the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) to provide a second round of forgivable loans to certain PPP recipients.

A new analysis of SBA data shows that materials recovery facilities (MRFs) and recyclables trading companies – categories that both include plastics recycling companies – received a total of $1,188,354,314. When Plastics Recycling Update last tallied PPP loans in December 2020, just before leaders authorized a second round of PPP support, the total lended to MRFs and recyclables traders was about $851 million.

The following are some recycling-industry-specific PPP numbers from data uploaded by the SBA in early January:

Materials recovery facilities (NAICS code 562920)

1st  loans: 1,191 loans worth $196,728,724 (average $165,179)

2nd loans: 248 loans worth $40,067,803 (average $161,564)

Total loans: 1,439 loans worth $236,796,527 (average loan was $164,556)

Click here to see a spreadsheet of all the MRFs receiving PPP money.

Recyclable material merchant wholesalers (NAICS code 423930)

1st loans: 5,194 loans worth $673,689,478 (average $129,705)

2nd loans: 1,965 loans worth $277,868,310 (average $141,409)

Total loans: 7,159 loans worth $951,557,788 (average of $132,918).

Click here to see all the recyclable material merchant wholesalers.

Plastics Recycling Update has created online maps showing who received loans. Zoom in to see regions in more detail, and click on the individual icons for specifics on the companies that received the payments. The blue factory icons indicate companies coded as materials recovery facilities and the green briefcase icons indicate recyclable material merchant wholesalers.

This map shows recipients of the first round of PPP loans (story continues below map):

Link to map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1-NDB-ZgV8AVsUEkQo9Awee-MmR4bmnCJ&usp=sharing

This map shows companies that received a second PPP loan (story continues below map):

Link to map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1q9ipWd8hC06crDioCD0bNqFJjrsxOays&usp=sharing

Note: The data above is based on the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code used to identify the types of businesses, with the codes submitted as part of applications for the SBA. In a number of cases, the companies listed may not align with what the recycling industry typically thinks of as “MRFs” or “recyclable material merchant wholesalers.”

(Disclosure: Resource Recycling, Inc., publisher of Plastics Recycling Update, received a $92,000 PPP loan in April 2020 and a $121,000 loan in February 2021. The company was coded under the NAICS codes for “convention and trade show organizers” and “periodicals publishers.”)

A version of this story appeared in Resource Recycling on February 8.

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