Recycling center recovers from fire

Nestled in the beautiful, rolling hills of Southeastern Kentucky, Somerset Recycling has quietly grown into a significant recycling company. Devastated by fire in 1997, the company rebuilt and has since experienced tremendous growth.

What began as a cardboard recycling company twenty years ago has evolved into a multi-faceted recycling corporation. The most rapid segment of growth for Somerset Recycling is in the area of plastics. Plastics comprise 70% of the company’s total revenue, up from 10% ten years ago. The company purchases and sells industrial recyclables with the majority being processed in the Kentucky facility. Plastics transported to the plant are put through a densification and/or grinding process and are then sold to a variety of manufacturers.

Somerset invested over 2 million dollars in equipment since the fire and currently employs over 85 full-time people. The future looks bright for SRSI, which projects to recycle over 100 million pounds of plastics and paper in 2005.

Future expansion includes another building and expansion of its Camden, Ohio location. When asked what motivates his vision for Somerset Recycling, Company founder and president, Steve Keck, replied, “Our ultimate motivation is to help people, locally and worldwide, through a variety of philanthropic organizations; the business is a vehicle for that, and I hate waste! When we can keep it out of the landfill and make a new product everyone wins.”

Visit www.somerset-recycling.com for more information.