News Release

Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center Leads Launch of New $10 Million Electronics Recycling Facility

January 6, 2010

The Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center (RMC) at Penn State Harrisburg has played a key role in the creation of a $10 million electronics recycling facility, Kuusakoski Philadelphia, LLC.

At full production, the state-of-the-art electronics recycling facility will create approximately 30 skilled, technical jobs while domestically recovering a minimum of 15,000 tons of recycled consumer electronics annually. The Kuusakoski processing technology, which is presently operated at locations in Finland, Sweden, and Russia, is the first-of-its-kind introduced to the United States.

The new facility is anticipated to be fully operational by late 2010.

"Without the involvement of RMC, it is likely our efforts to invest in Pennsylvania would not have occurred," said Vesa Samela, Kuusakoski country manager USA and board member of Kuusakoski Philadelphia. "Further, we have received a cordial introduction from the Department of Environmental Protection in Pennsylvania."

The RMC provided management support through all phases of the economic development project including: business planning; loan, grant, and tax credit coordination; facilitation of opportunities with the state Departments of Environmental Protection and Community and Economic Development; introduction to the Governor's Action Team; introduction to the Philadelphia Industrial Development Authority; introduction to the Center for International Regulatory Assistance; and technology and process validation.

"The RMC is proud to be associated with this success and strives to return the Commonwealth's investment to Pennsylvania while creating jobs at a time when domestic resources are critical," said Robert J. Bylone, executive director and president.

To produce metals and resources from an electronically driven society, Kuusakoski Philadelphia will be the first company in North America to utilize Kuusakoski's European electronics de-manufacturing technology. "We are excited and eager to move forward in building many new business opportunities," said Richard Burgess, president, BGA Commodities and newly appointed as CEO, managing partner of Kuusakoski Philadelphia.

"Kuusakoski gains strength from its acquisition of BGA Commodities, Inc., located in Philadelphia and also from its extensive global network of over 100 Kuusakoski service locations including Finland, Baltic Countries, Great Britain, Poland, Russia, Sweden, China, and Taiwan. "Kuusakoski has proudly partnered with BGA Commodities and the Recycling Markets Center to make this project a reality.

"Pennsylvania recognizes there are innovative companies out there working hard to find novel ways to preserve our natural resources by recycling existing materials and creating other products," said Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Acting Deputy Secretary Ken Reisinger. "With this project, we're investing our resources to help build demand on the part of manufacturers for materials that are traditionally challenging to domestically recover. That leads to a stronger recycling market in Pennsylvania, a stronger economy, and a cleaner environment. We are pleased to support RMC in its business development endeavors."

Organized as a non-profit 501c(3) corporation, the Pennsylvania Recycling Markets Center, Inc. is a leader in developing and expanding recycling markets. The RMC is Pennsylvania's keystone portal of environmental, economic development, and manufacturing resources leading to end use of recycled commodities and products. Headquartered at Penn State Harrisburg with satellite offices near Pittsburgh, the RMC can be contacted at 717.948.6660 or info@parmc.org. The RMC is supported in part by grant funds from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.